Sonic Adventure 3
by gottarun71
Summary: Sonic's next adventure, takes place right after SA2, this adventure's gonna rock LAST CHAPTER IS FINALLY UP PLEASE READ THE EXCITING CONCLUSION!
1. Beginning

Sonic Adventure 3  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own sonic, knuckles, tails, amy, or any other sonic characters. They all belong to SEGA inc. Although I'd give anything to own them.  
  
1:35 A.M.: somewhere over earth's orbit  
  
Sonic the hedgehog was flying toward earth, clutching 3 chaos emeralds in one hand and 4 in the other, and giving off a strong yellow aura. Tails had offered him a ride back from the space colony A.R.K. in the tornado, but sonic thought he would rather fly back alone. With all 7 chaos emeralds, he could stay in his super form for as long as he wanted. No matter how much he tried, sonic could not shake the thought of Shadow from his head. Not two hours ago shadow had been Sonic's arch-nemesis. So why should he even regret Shadow's death, he told himself. Well let's see, he did sacrifice himself to save the world, he thought aloud. He remembered how when he had returned to the space colony A.R.K. they had all had a moment of silence for Shadow, even Eggman. Sonic then noticed how clearer the stars looked from outer space. He wondered if by some freak chance, Shadow could still be alive out there somewhere in the huge cosmos. "Ahh stop it damnit, you're getting way to emotional", Sonic told himself. And with that, he burst off toward the green surface of the earth at near-light speed.  
  
Unknown time: Somewhere in the universe  
  
On the surface of a strange planet, in an unknown region of the universe, a burnt and charred black figure opens one blood red eye. "Where am I, what am I doing here, WHO AM I!!" he asks himself. Then suddenly a name, some vague memory of a name at the tip of his memories comes to him. "Shadow", he says softly. Then another memory, him falling, falling looking back at a strange space station, and him grabbing something, a jewel of some kind. He looked at his palm, he was still clutching this jewel. Chaos emerald, his mind tells him, but no, a chaos emerald looks different from this, his  
mind also tells him. This jewel had a fantastic look inside of it, it seemed to be made of all of the different colors at once, almost as though  
you could picture anything inside of it. Shadow finally takes a look around him, he is laying on the steps of some giant temple, surrounded by a  
lush forest. "Where the hell am I", Shadow mutters. "Well no time to  
waste, better find out" he says as he gets up. Shadow then discovers  
something else about himself: he can run. Fast. He streaks through the  
jungle, causing trees to blow over as though a hurricane had passed  
through. Animals dodge to get out of his path as he speeds by. Shadow then thinks "Something tells me this place is familiar", and speeds off in  
a black blur.  
  
Where is Shadow? What is the strange jewel he now possesses? What will Sonic do now that he saved the world again? Well anyway that's the end of the first chapter. Don't worry it will get more actiony slash adventury. I'll try to have the next part posted very soon. 


	2. Discoveries

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the sonic characters in this story yadda yadda yadda, so don't say I said I did  
  
7:00 A.M. Station Square  
  
Sonic had spent the night on the top of the tallest building in station square. He awoke to the sound of helicopter blades whirling loudly as he  
opened his eyes to see several news helicopters and a screaming crowd below. "We have the hero and savior of the world, Sonic the hedgehog on  
camera", yelled a reporter. "What do you have to say Sonic?" another reporter said. With a quick smile Sonic said "Well I'd like to say that I  
would love to hang around to chit chat but I gotta catch a ride", Sonic said. "Catch ya later dudes", and with that, he was off in a blue blur.  
"I guess I'll go catch knuckles at angel island", thought Sonic. "I  
should return the chaos emeralds"  
  
Angel Island: 7:05 A.M.  
  
Knuckles walked up the familiar steps of the master emerald shrine, carrying all the shards of the master emerald. In a way, he was glad to be back home, but truth be told, he was sorry the adventure was over. He knew he shouldn't be jealous of a certain blue hedgehog, he had been taught to ignore jealousy in his training, but he couldn't help it. Sonic was always so free, always going wherever he wanted, while he, Knuckles, was stuck on this damn floating island. He punched the floor of the shrine in anger,  
and in doing so, he noticed something very peculiar. In the large depression in the floor where the master emerald usually lay, a series of  
drawings were encircled. From the looks of them they seemed to be extremely old, maybe centuries. He knew this shrine like the back of his hand, why hadn't he noticed these before? One drawing was of a sinister looking white enchidna with his hands raised to the master emerald. The second was of the monster Chaos, destroying the world. Knuckles remembered Tikal saying that chaos had almost destroyed the world once before. But the most peculiar of all, two hedgehogs were pictured, one blue, one black.  
"It doesn't make sense", muttered knuckles. Just then Knuckles heard a booming sound in the distance. He turned in the direction he saw it, only to see a blue streak ramp of the top of a mountain, fly through the air,  
and land in a perfect perch on top of the master emerald shrine. "You never fail to make an entrance, do you", said knuckles. "Hey, I can't help  
it that I'm just so much cooler than you are Knuckles", said Sonic teasingly. Knuckles gave a quick smile, he knew it was true, even if he wished it was not. "Hey Sonic, come look at...", he trailed off as he saw  
a familiar looking blue plane in a nosedive toward the ocean. "Oh geez Tails", yelled sonic. "Be right back Knuckles", sonic said as he went into spin dash. He then ramped of on old fallen down pillar and flew over the  
ocean toward Tails' plane.  
  
Over the ocean: Same time  
  
Tails was panicking. Another one of his infamous plane crashes just great!  
He pulled the throttle up but nothing happened except for another explosion toward the rear and more black smoke. "Looks like this time it's  
the end, no ones coming to save me", whimpered tails. Just then a blue  
figure landed on the left wing with a boom. "Sonic!!!!", yelled an overjoyed Tails. "Don't get so happy Tails in a minute we're both gonna be  
shark dinner so do what I say okay", yelled sonic over the roar of the engine. Tails nodded. "Pull up on the throttle as hard as you can, I'm  
gonna be the motor", yelled sonic. Sonic then let go of the wing and  
allowed himself to be flung backwards. He grabbed onto the back of the  
plane just in time, and crawled into the space where the motor had exploded. If he went into a spin dash, it might create enough energy so that the belts that cause the propellers to spin would move again. He went into the hardest spin he could. Tails pulled up on the throttle just as they were about to hit the water. "This is the end", he thought. But no, the plane pulled out level just in time, skimming the water. Sonic pulled  
himself up to the passenger seat. "We did it!!!", cried Tails. "Tails  
watch out!!!", yelled Sonic. They were headed straight for the emerald  
shrine. But just then two spiked fists grabbed hold of the back of the  
front of the plane and started to push it back with their incredible strength. They came to a halt not two inches from the edge of the shrine. "Wow thanks Knuckles", said tails. "Hmph", was the only reply. "So Tails, what went wrong this time", said an annoyed Sonic. "Well actually nothing, I was shot down by one of Eggman's robots", Tails replied. "WHAT!!!", said Sonic and Knuckles in unison. "That guy can't keep his head cool for two  
minutes", said sonic angrily. "Well I'm afraid the reason is because,  
well it's that, " "WHAT!!!", yelled Knuckles. "I've discovered his  
next plan", said Tails softly.  
  
Unknown region of the galaxy: 12:00 midnight  
  
Shadow had been running through the jungle for half a day now. It seemed  
to be endless. "HOW AM I EVER GONNA GET OF THIS GOD DAMNED PLACE!!!",  
yelled shadow. Just then, he came to a clearing. There stood the same  
temple that he had woken up on this morning. But now, a strange white echidna stood at the entrance staring at him. They stood there staring for a moment. Then Shadow zoomed up and grabbed the echidna by the throat in a split second. "Tell me where I am now", said Shadow. The white echidna threw shadow to the ground with surprising speed and power. "I will tell  
you, Shadow the Hedgehog, if you will accompany me to the inside of my home", it replied, beckoning to the temple. " I believe you have something I need dearly." "I have nothing of yours!", yelled Shadow. "In fact, I don't even have anything with me, I have no idea where in the universe I  
am!", he yelled again. The white echidna pointed to the strange stone Shadow held in his palm. "I will tell you where you are, how you got here, and what the stone you posses is if you agree to help me", said the echidna  
calmly. "Agreed?", said the echidna as he held out his spiked hand. "Agreed", said Shadow as he shook the hand. A moment of silence followed. "I'm waiting", said Shadow. "You are on earth, my friend, year 958 A.D.,  
and the stone you posses is called a time stone", the echidna replied.  
  
Ohhhhhhh remember the time stones? From sonic CD? On sega genesis? No? Well you'll find out about them soon enough, I'll have the next part posted  
in a couple days, chow. 


	3. Battles

Disclaimer: I do not own any sonic characters in this story, except for the mysterious white echidna you will find out more about in this story. Ooooo aren't you excited  
  
On the moon: 12:00 noon earth time  
  
Dr. Eggman looked out of the window of the A.R.K. top secret moon base which had been kept secret from the world for 20 years. This mysterious base was built on the dark side of the moon so it could not be seen by any curious eyes from earth. It was built as a secondary information storage site, so if the something ever went wrong with A.R.K., the information on all the research performed would not be lost, and Eggman had only found out about it by a secret message encoded on the ships computer. It had lead  
him here and he was excited by what he saw. Besides project Shadow, another top secret project was researched on the A.R.K. The goal of this  
project, it seemed, was time travel. The file on the project said that they had found a crystal orbiting the earth that seemed to be able to warp space-time, and vigorous tests were being performed on it. They had so far been able to send small objects 5 seconds to the future and past, but that was all. "Fools", said Eggman aloud. "They have absolutely no ambition."  
"When I locate this crystal, I will go back to the dawn of time and  
enslave the inhabitants of this world", he thought. "I will use my machines to build Eggman Empire, and crush that cursed Sonic the moment he is born", he said aloud. "IT'S ALL TO PERFECT!!! YES!!! HAHAHAHA!!!" But  
then he remembered the fox boy tails had heard about his plan before he left the A.R.K. He had sent 10 of his E-series robots after him, there was no way he could escape. But if he did, he would tell Sonic and he would surely interfere. "GAMMA!!!!", he shouted. He had built a new and better gamma robot after he found out that E-102 had gone against him. "Reporting master", the robot said in a mechanical tone. "I have an assignment for  
you....", hissed Eggman.  
  
Station Square: 3:00 P.M.  
  
Amy Rose slowly plodded down Station Square's main street. She knew she shouldn't be depressed, the world was saved and all was well, but she was mad at herself. Once again Sonic had to come save her from her doom. He must hate her, always slowing him down and getting in his way. She caught site of the Twinkle Park entrance and remembered the time when she tried to drag Sonic in for the cute couples get in for free deal. She gave a quick  
laugh. How annoying of her. She overheard a conversation between two strangers about Sonic's latest feat at saving the world. Her spirits sank again. She thought that she might have walked out of that adventure with a  
shot at Sonic's heart, but nope, he had just gone off sad about Shadow. She brushed a strand of pink quills of her face as her eye caught hold of  
something. She saw something in the distance flying toward the street.  
For a moment she thought it looked like E-102 Gamma, but no, he was  
destroyed. She had liked Gamma though, he always did what you told him without question, completely trusting. As it got closer, she could make  
the object out. IT WAS GAMMA!!! "Oh Gamma, how did you get here? Who rebuilt you? Why. HEY!!!" The robot had her at gunpoint. "E-102 GAMMA  
WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!" Amy cried. "Name does not compute", replied the robot. "I am model E-103 Gamma, sent by master Eggman", said the robot in a monotonous tone. "AHHHHH HELP!!!", screamed Amy as the robot lifted off  
the ground with her in its metal arms.  
  
Angel Island: 4:00 P.M.  
  
Tails had just finished relating what he had heard to Sonic and Knuckles. They all sat in stunned silence, particularly Sonic. "The time stones!",  
said Sonic. "I used those to defeat Eggman years ago!" "Remember, the little planet, Amy" He paused. That had been the first time Sonic had met Amy and had to save her. Tails and Knuckles both smiled. "WHAT?", said  
sonic angrily. "Oh come on Sonic, just admit you like her", said Tails with a smirk. "Alright first of all, I don't", said sonic coldly. "And second of all, we've got more important things to worry about, like where are we gonna find the time stones?" "I sent them back to the past after I  
defeated Eggman, remember?" "All except one", corrected Tails. He was right, Sonic had made sure that no one would be able to use the time stones in the past by keeping one in the present and sending it to the most remote place he could think of: Earth's orbit. Apparently the space colony A.R.K.  
had found it. Knuckles put a finger to his lips. "What's that", said Tails. They all heard a low humming sound coming from the distance. They turned in that direction to see what looked like a fleet of E-series robots  
heading toward them. " Ol' egg head just can't give it a rest can he",  
yelled Sonic. "Tails leave it to me and Knux", said Sonic. "I'll take five, you take the other five, got it?", sonic commanded. "Yes master", replied Knuckles. As the robots descended with their guns loaded, sonic yelled, "Hey metal asses, can't catch me!" All ten of the robots shot at him at once. Sonic darted to the left, just in time for knuckles to take out two robots at one with a sweeping blow. Sonic jumped up and homed into a robot with the force of a 50 pond bullet, knocking it back into another. He then darted behind one of the robots, and clung onto it's back. Another  
bot shot at Sonic, but he jumped out of the way just in time for the  
bullets to hit the other unsuspecting piece of hardware. "5 down, 5 to go", yelled knuckles. Sonic started charging up for a light speed attack,  
while Knuckles glided into a robot and stole its machine gun. Knuckles unloaded a round into a robot aiming at sonic, just as sonic burst out of spin and took out the remaining 3 robots in a boom that lasted less than 0.00001 seconds. "Hey no fair, you only got 4", panted sonic. Knuckles  
smiled, Sonic would always have a witty comment for anything. But it looked as though they had overlooked one robot. "SONIC HELP!!!", screamed a small pink figure in the arms of what looked to be E-102 Gamma. "AMY!!",  
yelled Sonic. "What's going on!" The robot jetted off with Amy still struggling. "Tails come with me, Knuckles, stay here and guard the chaos  
emeralds with your life", yelled a frantic Sonic. "Do I ever do otherwise?", said Knuckles. Tails picked up sonic by the arms and started to fly after Eggman's robot over the ocean as fast as his tails would carry him. Sonic remembered how he had said that they had more important things to worry about than Amy a couple minutes ago. "The irony is terrible", he  
thought.  
  
Earth 958 A.D.: early morning  
  
Shadow was woken by the strange white echidna who had given him food and a place to sleep the night before. Now that Shadow could get a better look at him, he realized that he was white where other echidnas were red, and red were other echidnas were white. He was badly injured and scarred in some places, and half of his right ear was torn off. "Eat this", he said as he thrust something that looked like a roasted bat at Shadow. Shadow was so hungry he didn't care, he would have eaten anything. When he was  
done Shadow said, "You got a name?" "No, I never had a real name, but I used to be called Ghost by everyone who knew me", the white echidna said.  
Then it hit Shadow, "How did you know my name last night?", he asked. Ghost paused. "Well Shadow sit down and I'll tell you a story." Shadow wondered: What kind of game is he trying to play with me? Shadow listened to Ghost tell a story about a tribe of echidna's at war with humans. This tribe of echidnas was the keepers of a very powerful force known as: chaos.  
Ghost had been an outcast in his tribe because of his unusual coloring,  
and later became a warrior to fight in the war between humans. He had become convinced that they could use the power of chaos to win the war. He convinced the king of this tribe to try to harness the power, against the wish of the king's daughter, Tikal. In doing so they unleashed the monster Chaos, who would have destroyed the world if Tikal hadn't trapped it inside of a giant emerald and absorbed its powers into 7 different emeralds called the chaos emeralds. They then set in place a line of elite guardians who would protect these emeralds, the first one being Tikal. The king blamed Ghost for his actions, and banished him to this endless jungle. "The fools only let the monster run wild because they didn't know how to control it",  
Ghost finished. "If they would have let me unleash it, I could have controlled it." "That's wonderful", said Shadow. "Except I still don't know how you knew my name." "Before I was banished our tribe seer made a  
prophecy", said Ghost quietly. "He said a blue hedgehog would save the  
world from Chaos twice, and a shadow of him would help him the second time." "He made a mural of it around the place the master emerald sat."  
It was all two much for Shadow. All his memories came flooding back to him. Of Sonic. Of Eggman. Of the space colony A.R.K. The Biohazard. Maria.  
"How did I get to this time to 958 A.D.", Shadow thought aloud. "When I came here, I found 6 of the time stones", said Ghost. I learned how to use  
them. I could warp small amounts of time into the future or past with  
them. To go wherever I want to go in time I would need all 7. Then I  
could warp to the past, gain control of chaos, and punish all those who mistreated me.", he said menacingly. "And guess who just came along with a  
time stone." "What makes you think I'll give it to you", said Shadow. "Well I'd have to kill you if you didn't", hissed Ghost. "Ha, just try and catch me", said Shadow with a smirk. He darted for the door, but had to stop when he realized Ghost was already standing there. "He must be using the time stones to move faster", thought Shadow. Before Shadow could make a move, Ghost landed a blow to Shadow's head, causing him to drop the time  
stone. Ghost picked it up and held all 7 in his outstretched hand. He started to move his mouth but Shadow grabbed hold of his leg and shouted,  
"YEAR 2003 A.D.!!!" There was a loud boom and suddenly Shadow felt as  
though he was being hurdled forward at a tremendous speed. He felt as  
though he was going to black out, when suddenly it stopped. Shadow was  
falling again.  
  
Ok that was a long chapter. For those of you who haven't played Sonic CD on genesis, It's the first sonic game with Amy and the only one with the time stones. In it Dr. Robotnik has some evil scheme to take over a little planet that revolves around earth that only comes out once every 10 years or something. It's pretty cool. A little about myself: I'm 13 and this is my first fanffic. I love sonic and everything to do with him. I'll have  
the next chapter posted soon bye bye. 


	4. The return of a hero

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Sonic characters in this story except for Ghost the Echidna (Yes he finally has a name!) but this is a fan fiction so you should know that already!  
  
12:00 Midnight: Station Square  
  
Rouge the bat was flying in a low, sullen glide under the starry curtain  
blanketing Station Square. She supposed to be looking for an important  
jewel with a heavy reward on it that had been stolen from one of her clients. "Geez for the top treasure hunter around I sure get some of the bottom of the barrel jobs", she thought aloud. She thought of her latest adventure, oh the fun she had, why did it have to come to such a sad end.  
She felt a tear forming in her eye as she thought of Shadow. It wasn't  
that she had liked him liked him, no, she had eyes set on a certain red echidna. She just kept thinking of how brave he had been, and if she could  
ever have been that brave, sacrificing herself to save the earth. She brushed away a tear mingled with the purple makeup she always wore on her eyelids. She sighed softly, what she wouldn't give to see Shadow one more time and thank him. As she thought this, she caught something out of the top of her eye. It was hard to make out, she could just see its outline against the stars, and it seemed to falling, getting closer. "It almost  
looks like, but no, it can't be", said Rouge, her eyes filled with  
desperate hope. She flapped her wings earnestly to position herself  
directly under the falling object, and made a lunge with her arms  
outreached. She reached and flapped her wings harder "Come on come on, just a little closer", she muttered to herself in desperation. She made  
it! As the warm object landed in her hands, she realized that it was Shadow! "Oh Shadow how did you.., I thought you were.." But Shadow was heavier than Rouge had suspected. She began an erratic downward spiral, flapping her wings desperately while trying to hang on to Shadow with all  
her might as she flipped and twisted downward toward the ground. She spotted a small pond out of the corner of her eye and desperately tried to level out and flap toward it, but it was useless. The concrete grew closer and closer... "This is it!", thought Rouge, her eyes wide with terror. But then Shadow surprised her by grabbing her hand and yelling "Hold on tight!"  
Without knowing what else to do, Rouge squeezed it with all her might,  
somehow feeling safe now that Shadow was in control. Shadow revved up,  
aimed at the pond, and burst forward in homing attack toward the pond, catching Rouge totally off guard as she was whipped forward. They landed with a huge splash in the pond, plunging them both deep down into the murky water. Rouge opened her eyes under the water, and could barely make out Shadow's limp hand under the water. She grabbed it fiercely and started swimming toward what she hoped was the surface desperately, hoping with all her life that Shadow was not dead. She could see the moonlight reflecting  
off the surface, "almost there, almost there!", she told herself. She broke the surface gasping for air as she flung Shadow upward onto her back.  
She flapped her wet wings harder than she ever had before, her heart pounding with every beat closer to the shore. She finally collapsed on the  
muddy shore, panting furiously as her eyes moved over to Shadow's limp body. His lips began moving, but it seemed as though he couldn't get the words out. "Talk Shadow, TALK!!", rouge panted frantically. "Take me...to  
Angel Island", was all he managed before passing out in Rouge's arms. Rouge sat there in shock for two whole minutes catching her breath before  
another single thought entered her head. "If you want to get the Angel Island, than god damnit I'll get you there", she finally managed. As she holstered Shadow up onto her back, she noticed his head was bleeding on one  
side. "I'll bet Knuckles will be able to fix it", she said to the thin air. She lifted off the ground with great difficulty, then started to fly off in the direction of Angel Island, her chest heaving with every flap. She thought of how 2 minutes ago when she was thinking she would never see  
Shadow again. "Oh the irony", she said aloud.  
  
Same time: unknown valley near mystic ruins  
  
Sonic and Tails had been chasing the E-102 look-alike robot for almost 6 hours now. As Tails wiped another load of sweat of his face, he felt like  
dropping to the ground and fainting, but then he looked over to Sonic. His deep emerald eyes were radiating with a fierce determination that he had only seen twice before, once when he about to fight the monster Chaos, and the other when he had rushed into the room in the space colony A.R.K. where Eggman was holding Amy hostage. This look in Sonic's eyes inspired Tails, so he ran even harder as they started to thunder up the slope of a mountain in hot pursuit of the robot. It's not that the robot was faster than Sonic, no, Tails didn't know of anything that was, it was keeping such a high altitude that there was no way they could reach it, but that didn't stop sonic from trying to ramp of the top of a mountain to catch the thing. Tails propelled himself forward with his two bushy tails spinning wickedly  
behind him to try to catch up with Sonic. His two tails felt as though they were going to fall off. "I can't..go on...any longer", he managed to pant, but to his surprise the robot stopped in midair. It started to hover  
downward toward a small concealed valley tucked between two mountains. Sonic ran harder. Tails instinctively followed, but flopped down on to his back as soon as he reached the valley. He saw Sonic dart toward the familiar looking robot at a ridiculous speed, and then some sense finally came into Tails' head. "Wait Sonic don't it's an..." But before he could finish, the sound of what must be 100 loading guns was heard, and what must have been 100 more E-series robots appeared from behind the concealment of  
trees, bushes, and boulders everywhere, completely surrounding them. "...ambush.", Tails finished weakly. "Shit!", Sonic swore loudly. The E- 102 looking robot stepped forward and began to speak "Message recorded from master Eggman." The recorded voice of the mad doctor began to play through the robots speakers, "Well well well if it isn't my old pal Sonic! As you can see Sonic, you're completely surrounded with no way out so you might as well divulge any information you have on where the time stones could be, as I might let you go if you did!" "Message end", chimed E-103. Tails almost thought that Sonic was at a loss for words, but nope, not even now was he.  
"You can tell my hard boiled friend that I would love to stay around and play with his little metal toys, but I guess I'll play with him some other  
time", Sonic said as he got ready to bolt toward the robot holding Amy. But before he could take a step, all of the robots had their lasers pointed  
at either him or Tails. Now Sonic really was at a loss for words.  
  
Amy struggled to get free of the robot's icy iron grip. "Get off me you metal bastard", she grunted. Once again she was being used as bait to lure  
Sonic into another one of Eggman's traps. Once again Sonic had to come  
save the little damsel in distress. 'It isn't my fault", she told  
herself. "There was no way I could prevent myself from being caught by this robot that she thought had been E-102 Gamma!" The more she thought about it, the madder she got. She clenched her teeth and bit her lip to the point where she couldn't bear it any longer. With her spare hand, she slowly reached into her purse and started rummaging for the biggest mallet she could find. Luckily, her captor didn't seem to notice. She found what she was looking for. Faster than you could blink an eye at, she whipped  
out the mallet, swung it back, and creamed the robot, sending it flying  
back into another with a large BOOM! This triggered a moment of utter  
chaos.  
  
Sonic took this opportunity to grab Amy in one hand and Tails in the other, and flung himself behind a boulder. Bullets flew everywhere, and pinged of the boulder they were crouched behind. "We're completely surrounded, we'll  
have to fight our way out", Tails whimpered. They could hear the  
terrifying clang of the robots advancing on them. Sonic thought for a moment, and then, with a ferocious look blazing in his eyes said, "You're  
right Tails. Amy, on my signal, you jump out to the left, Tails, the right. I'll take the front. Whatever happens don't give up, Got it?", he said as he took both their hands. Tails and Amy both nodded, their eyes narrow with determination. Sonic raised his head, "ONE, TWO THREE, LETS  
ROLL!!!" Thus the battle begun.  
  
12:15 A.M.  
Knuckles stood in front of the master emerald, stiff, strong, and as immovable as a mountain. Night was not a time of rest for Knuckles, no,  
night was a curtain for thieves and others seeking to claim the large emerald as their own, and Knuckles had had his fair share of run ins with  
would be thieves that actually expected him to be sleeping. Knuckles wondered why people failed to see that is was people's greed or lust for  
power that had often brought along their downfalls in history.  
Civilizations, cities, and probably even entire worlds had fallen as a  
result of greed. He wondered how people could be so ignorant. As he thought this, he thought he could see an object, outlined against the large moon, heading his way. He got his fists ready, he wondered how quickly it  
would take him to deal with this one. But as the shape got closer he thought it looked familiar somehow. He could make out a figure with two wings carrying something he couldn't see clearly, and it was flying in an erratic path, dipping and swooping, as if struggling to go on. "Is that  
really..Rouge?", Knuckles said, almost in a whisper. As the figure got closer, he could see that it was indeed Rouge, but she was sweat soaked and  
struggling greatly, but the thing she was carrying...it was...SHADOW!! "Rouge! Shadow! How are you alive Shadow? What are you guys doing here?" Rouge fell out of her flight and crash landed at the steps of the shrine.  
"Shadow (pant) is (pant) hurt badly (pant)", Rouge managed. Knuckles  
turned the unconscious Shadow on his side and caught sight of the open wound on his head. Blood was crusted over all over the wounded area, and it appeared to be caused by hitting it with a sharp object. Knuckles took  
a look at his own spiked fists. "Something like this could have caused it", he thought to himself. Knuckles took some dried spices and herbs from plants that grew on the island and sprinkled them over the wound to stop any further bleeding, and then wrapped a long thick gauze made of leaves around it. "Will he be okay?", Rouge asked hopefully. "I think he'll be able to pull through, it's nothing too bad.", Knuckles replied. "How is he alive anyway?", Knuckles asked in disbelief. "I don't know. He just fell from the sky and I was lucky enough to catch him. I don't know how it's  
possible either, I haven't gotten a chance to ask him.", was all Rouge could say. They both sat there in silence for almost 20 minutes until a stirring from Shadow caught there attention. "Oh Shadow please wake up!",  
Rouge pleaded. Shadow suddenly lifted his head and surveyed his  
surroundings, but his eye finally fixed upon the spot where the master emerald lay. He jumped up onto his feet and bolted to the spot, then knelt  
then and surveyed the large depression where the master emerald spun silently. "Shadow what are you..." "SHHHHHH!", Shadow interrupted. His  
blood red eye roamed across the paintings that Knuckles had discovered earlier. Shadow stood up. "So it's true. He wasn't lying. We haven't seen the last of Chaos, we will have to fight it again.", he said with a transfixed looked in his eye. "Shadow I don't understand..what are you.." "Where is Sonic!", Shadow interrupted Rouge again. "He went off in that direction", Knuckles said, pointing east. "In pursuit of a robot that took Amy hostage", he finished. Shadow suddenly took Knuckles' arm. "Knuckles, listen to me, you have to stay here and guard the emeralds with your life,  
this is extremely important, your life depends on it, GOT IT?" "Sure",  
Knuckles said, a little annoyed. "And Rouge, thanks for saving me", he added. And with that, he thundered down the bridge connecting Angel Island to the land, causing it to shake violently behind him. Knuckles and Rouge looked at each other for a moment. Knuckles finally said, "Well, it looks like we get left out of all the action again." Rouge gave a little laugh. She took his hand in hers. Knuckles realized how beautiful she looked in the moonlight. They both smiled. "This is crazy", Knuckles said, a little in shock. "I know", Rouge added with a smile. They both leaned in for a  
kiss. Oh boy were they in for a night.  
  
1:00 A.M. The new Egg Carrier  
  
The two figures stood across from each other, each gazing intently into the other's eyes in the half light. One of the figures spoke "So let me see,  
you say you know where this time stone is, and you're offering me an alliance if I can help you obtain it, correct?" "Correct", said the other figure, a sinister looking white echidna. "If you help me to obtain it, I will allow you to travel back to the past with me, and we can gain control  
of the world together, build our new empire side by side, and split our riches down the middle.", the white echidna said, without allowing his face to convey the slightest hint of emotion. The other figure stroked his long  
mustache in thought. His eyes glimmered with greed. "And how do I know  
that you will not betray me as soon as you possess the time stone?", he  
asked. "I could ask the same of you.", the echidna replied. The mad doctor thought on this for a moment, and then stuck his hand out. "Do we  
have a deal?", he asked nervously. The white echidna took the doctors hand. "We have a deal, doctor Eggman.", he said. The two figures shook hands, each not knowing that the other had his fingers crossed behind his  
back.  
  
Whew. That was long. Okay I need more reviews people please review! I'm thinking about re-doing chapters 2 and 3, I didn't like the way they turned out. What do you think? Oh by the way ahem: Don't miss the next chapter  
of Sonic Adventure 3! Will Shadow get there in time to help Sonic and  
friends out of their rumble royal? Will Eggman and Ghost get the time stone before the good guys? What will Knuckles and Rouge do now? Will I  
ever stop asking questions? Find out! 


	5. Plans

Valley near Mystic Ruins  
  
Back off  
  
I'll take you on!  
  
Headstrong  
  
I'll take on anyone!  
  
I know that you are wrong,  
  
And this is not, where you belong!!!  
  
The battle was raging. Sonic plowed his way through the robot hordes, while Amy was literally batting away bullets with a mallet in each hand.  
Tails, being the mechanical genius he is, had gained control of a small fleet 3 or 4 robots by rewiring them, while he picked of enemies with a gun he had salvaged from one of the wrecked robots. Bullets whizzed past Sonic as he jumped and weaved his way out of their path, leaving him just enough time to homing attack in midair right through an unsuspecting robot. He twisted his body into a spin-dash just as he hit the ground, slamming into another victim's back, sending it flying into two more robots that had been  
aiming for Sonic. If you've ever heard the expression "faster than a  
speeding bullet", you would have liked to see Sonic surprise a robot by running level with a bullet, catching it between his fingers, and chucking the bullet back at it. Amy swung and chopped her way through a crowd of E-  
103s, while Tails and his robots unleashed an assault upon the bots hovering in the air. "EVERYONE OKAY?", Sonic yelled over the roar of the battle as a bullet grazed his blue fur. He heard Tails and Amy try to yell something that he couldn't hear. He hoped that they would be able to  
keep up the fight; they only had about half of the bots destroyed. But Sonic would never give up, one look at his eyes would tell you that much.  
Sonic always had a song playing in his head. It was just the way he functioned. Now the song went something like the one played at the top of  
this page. "I'll fight to the death if I have to", he thought aloud.  
"It's what Shadow did."  
  
As Sonic thought this, Shadow was tearing through a lush forest in the  
direction of the battle. He thundered through any clear path he could find, with little regard for anything in his way. He must get to Sonic and tell him about the prophecy made, or Ghost the Echidna could find the  
7th time stone before them, and alter the course of history so that he  
ruled everything alive, and Sonic was never even born. Then who would save the world from Chaos twice over? It was vital that Sonic and him both  
survive and find the time stone before Ghost. Shadow grabbed hold of a vine and swung across a large ravine. He wondered how it was that he and Sonic shared such similar features and abilities, it couldn't just be by  
chance, it must have been meant to be. He tore up the slope of a steep mountain, billowing up a cloud of dust behind him. "But if the prophecy is true, then there is no way we can stop Ghost, he will get the time stone and raise the monster chaos again", Shadow said aloud, very confused now.  
He wondered if when his dear Maria had told him to save the world, she hadn't meant from the Biohazard, maybe she had meant that he had to save the world from Chaos alongside Sonic. He stopped when he reached the peak of a mountain, looking down upon a small concealed valley. He had found  
Sonic, and he needed his help.  
  
Amy batted another one of her victims 10 feet across the battlefield as her  
eye caught hold of something. At first it just looked like a black dot perched on top of a high mountain, but then she though it looked kinda like Sonic, but Sonic was right here in the battle. But it couldn't be...no  
way, "SHADOW!!!!" Sonic tripped in midair at the sound of Amy's exclamation. He turned around with hope shimmering in his eyes, and caught sight of a black streak rocketing down the mountain. "SHADOW!!!", Sonic  
and Tails exclaimed simultaneously. Another bullet grazed the top of Sonic's head, and Sonic turned around to see a robot with the barrel of his  
machine gun aimed between Sonic's eyes. But just in time, a black  
cannonball came to save Sonic from his doom. Shadow the Hedgehog was standing on top of the robot he had just destroyed, looking at Sonic with a  
small smile across his lips. "Hey, you're late", Sonic said, almost in tears. "Fashionably late", replied Shadow while landing a blow to another bot with his foot. "Wanna play with Eggman's toys?", asked Shadow. With a large smile, Sonic said "Any time." They charged headlong into the mob of E-103s side by side. Shadow plowed a path through the middle with a spin dash, while Sonic homing attacked off the heads of numerous robots. Sonic and Shadow crossed paths in midair and grabbed each other's hands, creating  
a rubber band effect that flung both of them back at the unsuspecting  
robots at top speed. Shadow kicked and punched robots out of his way,  
while Sonic shoved a sharp piece of metal he had found in the wreckage through robots like a sword. Shadow and Sonic than ran around in circle in opposite directions to each other, creating a huge sonic boom and a mini  
whirlwind that blasted away all robots within 50 feet. Sonic started charging for a light attack while Shadow distracted the remaining crowd of  
robots. White sparks started to shoot off Sonic's blue fur as he spun faster and faster, and Shadow leapt out of the way as Sonic unleashed his  
mad fury upon the unfortunate remaining victims. It was all a blinding blue flash and a huge boom for the spectators, in less than a second all the remaining E-103 robots were reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble. On  
top of the wreckage stood the two hedgehogs, a victorious look on their  
faces.  
  
The new Egg Carrier  
  
Eggman and Ghost had watched the whole scene through the eyes of a scouting  
bot that sat in the cover of a nearby tree. "Just as I had suspected, Shadow has aligned himself with that fool Sonic!", Eggman grunted. Ghost had an amused look on his face. "Personally, I don't understand why you  
even care. He's about as useless as those robots you sent to attack  
Sonic." For a moment, emotion actually entered Eggman's mind. "Listen  
you, he was twice as useful as you'll ever be! He saved the world, and would have given his life for it!" Eggman suddenly felt awkward. Ghost just shrugged his shoulders. "Anyway, tell me again how you know where the time stone is", said an embarrassed Eggman. "When me and Shadow teleported at the same time, we were both thrown to different sections of the world. The time stone, however, stayed exactly where we teleported from, which is a temple in a lush rainforest not to far from here.", Ghost replied. "I'll  
activate my tracking device to try to find it", Eggman said as started pressing buttons on the ship's control board. "No good. The time stone cannot be picked up by any ordinary sound-based radar. What I'm wondering is how we are going to deal with the hedgehogs when we get there, they can surely get to the time stone just as fast as we can.", Ghost said in his never changing tone of voice. "Oh you just leave that to me. Ghost, meet  
metal Sonic and mecha Shadow!"  
  
12:00 Noon: Back at Angel Island  
  
Sonic, Shadow, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, and Rouge all sat in a stunned silence. Shadow had just finished telling his story of how he had returned to Earth, leaving out only one part. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to talk to Sonic, ALONE.", Shadow said, despite Amy and Tails' protests. He hadn't told them about the prophecy. Sonic followed Shadow up the steps of  
the master emerald shrine. "What's this about", Sonic asked, a little confused. Shadow pointed to the mural that encircled the master emerald. "What do you see there, Sonic?" Sonic looked at the mural closely. "Ummm I see a bunch of pictures, there's Chaos, the master Emerald, that Ghost  
character you told us about, and...", he trailed off when his eyes fell upon the picture of him and Shadow. "Listen Sonic, there was a prophecy made by an old seer of Knuckles' ancient tribe almost 1,200 years ago. It said that Chaos would be raised upon the earth again, much more powerful this time, and you and I would have to stop it. We're destined to either be heroes, or let the end of the world come. To make a long story short.", Shadow proclaimed with an intense look in his blood red eyes. Sonic was speechless at first. Then, with a quick smirk and that same intense look  
in his emerald green eyes, he said, "Well then, let's go be heroes!"  
  
The plan was this: Tails had been able to locate the time stone with a special radar that found a spot where space-time had been warped greatly. This spot happened to be in an old temple in the middle of a huge desert that had once been a lush rainforest. Sonic and Shadow would rush to that spot to try and get the time stone before Ghost or Eggman. Knuckles and Rouge would not be guarding the emeralds for once, they would go with Tails  
in the Tornado to try and look for Eggman, and hopefully infiltrate his  
base if they could find it. Everyone noticed that Knuckles and Rouge seemed to be happy to be on a job together, and didn't find it surprising. Amy was given the 7 chaos emeralds and 1 shard off the master emerald. She was to go to Station Square and hide somewhere with the emeralds, or stay out of trouble, as Sonic put it. Amy didn't take the job without putting up a large fight of course, but in the end it was settled. "So, everyone know what they've got to do?", Sonic asked, greeted by nods from everyone, and a grunt from Amy. "Listen, whatever happens, don't give up, the fate of this entire world, maybe universe, rests in our hands now." "Or maybe  
our feet", thought Sonic.  
  
Okay sorry it took so long to update, I was out of town for the weekend. I'm gonna try to pick up the pace of the story a little bit, I think it's kinda dragging along to slow. Well thanks for all your great reviews, I probably don't deserve all of them! Oh yeah, Next time on Sonic Adventure 3: Sonic and Shadow get to the time stone only to discover that Ghost has aligned himself with Eggman, and has brought along two very special metal friends with him. Meanwhile, Knuckles, Rouge, and Tails discover Eggman's new Egg Carrier floating off the coat of Station Square, while Amy gets a visit by another old friend, an updated version of Zero! Don't miss it!  
  
P.S. That little riff at the beginning, it's from a song by this band  
Trapt, it's called Headstrong. Download it or something it's cool. 


	6. Enimies Clash

So lay down, the threat is real,  
  
When his sight goes red again.  
  
Seeing red again  
  
This change, he won't contain,  
  
Slip away, to clear your mind.  
  
When asked, who made it show,  
  
The truth, he gives in to most.  
  
Seeing red again.  
  
Great Desert: 6:00 P.M.  
  
"Well, here's your lush tropical rainforest!", Eggman said to Ghost as they looked down on the yellow sand dunes surrounding the pyramid. "Hey, things change over a thousand years!", Ghost shot back as he started to climb out  
of the little pod that Eggman always went everywhere in. "Just don't forget to take along my two little friends", Eggman said as metal Sonic and Mecha-Shadow flew out from behind the pod. Eggman had done a good job on these two metal clones of the hedgehogs, they could reach speeds of up to  
700 mph, almost as fast as Sonic, and could bend steel with their metal hands. Metal Sonic was a cool metallic blue with a huge jet in his middle,  
with robotic yellow eyes. Mecha-Shadow was a shiny chrome with black streaks, and had 2 jets on each shoe, much like the real Shadow. Instead of two separate robotic eyes, Mecha-Shadow had one red visor screen across his face. Ghost gave a little chuckle and said, "Well I'll take these two trash scraps along if you insist, but I've got something special in mind for the black hedgehog!" Eggman looked a little worried at this comment,  
but just shrugged and said, "Well, whatever, just don't overdo it and  
remember, I'll be waiting in the Egg Carrier of the coast of Station Square. I've sent the other 6 time-stones up to the A.R.K. moon base, so don't get any ideas about trying to betray me!" Ghost gave a sly smile as he hit the yellow sand and said, "Hey, I always go by my word!" Which of c  
ourse was another lie.  
  
Great Desert: Precisely one hour later  
  
Sonic and Shadow thundered over the dunes of the desert side by side, billowing up a huge sand cloud behind them. When Sonic looked at Shadow  
running perfectly alongside him, it reminded him of when they had raced along the A.R.K.'S sky deck, prepared to fight to the death. Shadow was  
thinking of the same thing. They both wondered how so quickly they had gone from arch-enemies to inseparable best friends. They both looked at each other at the same time, and realized that they were sharing the same thoughts. "Funny isn't it", Sonic said as they whisked over another huge dune, "We were destined to be enemies and heroes together." Shadow only nodded, he could see the temple up in the distance. "Let's hope that they didn't beat us to it", Shadow said in a worried tone. Sonic noticed this and said, "Ahhhh don't worry so much, you take everything too seriously!"  
Shadow shot him an evil glance and said in his dramatic tone, "Oh yeah, well this is a serious matter Sonic, the fate of the world depends on us!" Sonic just smiled and said, "Well, my philosophy is that you just need to kick back and have fun with whatever life throws at you. You make mistakes when you're nervous, so just make an adventure out of life, and never take  
it for granted!" Shadow thought about this as they approached the huge  
pyramid, unaware of who was waiting for them.  
  
Off the cost off the Capital City: 7:00 P.M.  
  
Tails had spotted a large object on radar floating right under the surface off the Coast of the Capital City, and he thought he could guess what it  
was. It was Eggman's new base, and it obviously had submarine capabilities. "So Knuckles and Rouge, put on these wetsuits, you two are gonna dive under and find the air lock entrance, which should be located  
somewhere on the belly of the ship." Rouge had an agitated look on her face while she tried to slip on the tight wet suit. "Hey, don't look so angry, you look really sexy in that suit", Knuckles commented playfully.  
Rouge gave him a slap across the face and said, "Oh please!" Tails was cracking up in the front seat. "Okay lovebirds", Tails said, "Get ready to  
jump!" Knuckles and Rouge looked down and saw a dark spot in the water where the base must be. "One, Two, Three, JUMP!", Tails shouted. Knuckles  
and Rouge took a huge dive off the edge of the plane, and were soon screaming down vertically toward the water's surface. Neither Knuckles nor Rouge were scared as the surface of the water grew nearer, they were  
both so used to this sort of thing by now. They hit the water with a tremendous crash that Tails could hear from his plane. Knuckles and Rouge both opened their eyes under the murky water. Rouge motioned for Knuckles to turn on the flashlight on his goggles. Two beams of light shot out from their heads and fell upon the surface of the ship, and they both grabbed hold of the side and felt their way down to the belly of the base. They  
searched the underside of the ship, and finally found what they wanted.  
Knuckles and Rouge both grabbed a hold on the lock and pulled with all  
their might, and it finally popped open and allowed them to crawl in. Knuckles reclosed the airtight lock and motioned for Rouge to push a button  
on the wall, which started to drain the chamber of its water. When the water was all drained, they both slipped of the wetsuits, and opened the  
other airtight door leading to the Egg Carrier's bottommost chamber.  
Knuckles put a finger to his lips and slowly poked his head through the  
opening, looked both ways quickly and motioned for Rouge to follow him. Rouge took out the two way radio Tails had given her, and pressed the call button. "We're in Tails sweetie, so whaddaya want us to do now?" "Alright Rouge see that little blue button on the radio? Press it. And please don't ever call me sweetie again." "Whatever you say honey", Rouge said as she  
pressed the button. A little device that looked like a satellite dish popped out of the top of the radio and started to spin around. Tails just sighed and said, "Well there's no sign of any human life forms on board, so Eggman must be out somewhere in City, but be careful, he must have lots of robots on guard. I'm gonna go see if I can find Eggman, what I want you to do is to get to the ship's master computer, then hack into it and find any  
information you can on what Eggman plans to do next. And also, I'm not sure, but I think that there could be a very interesting file that Eggman  
overlooked when he downloaded the information from the A.R.K. I gave knuckles a device that should be able to find it if it's there, got it?" "Whatever you say sugar buns", Rouge said just to make Tails angrier. The radio clicked off and Knuckles and Rouge both laughed hardly. Their eyes met, and they drew in for a kiss, but their sweet moment was interrupted  
when a laser beam grazed the top of Knuckles' head.  
  
7:30 P.M.: The part of the Capital City known as Station Square  
  
Amy ran through an alley toward the casino in the darkening twilight. She thought that she would be safe there, there were so many people that anyone  
that would be looking for her wouldn't be able to find her. Or so she thought. She strolled on in with her heavy purse full of the emeralds, and  
went to the bar to order a drink. She went down to a small both and  
started to sip on her margarita while she practiced one of her favorite  
activities: eavesdropping. She started to concentrate on the strangers  
having a conversation behind her. One of the figures said in a nervous voice, "Alright you know I shouldn't be sharing this information with you,  
I was sworn to privacy when I entered the project, but since you're offering such a large reward I'll.." "Yes I am offering you a reward, a large one", the other person said, "This file is of great interest to me, and the only person who will know you shared this information is me", the stranger said in a crackly voice. Amy was shocked, she knew that voice! She slowly turned her head around to steal a peak at the two figures. One of the men was dressed in a white labcoat, he looked like a scientist, but for the other there was no mistaking. Even though he was concealed in a brown trench coat and hat, the fiery mustache gave it all away. Eggman. Amy shrunk in her seat and froze, how could she have been so unlucky. But  
then she thought about it, "This could actually be my big chance to be useful for once, if I go back to Sonic with some important information, he  
might respect me more!" She concentrated hard on listening to the  
conversation. The stranger in the lab coat cleared his throat, "Ahem..yes, the file concerns a very intriguing find during the creation of project Shadow among other things. The file is located somewhere in the  
data you say that you downloaded from A.R.K. It is stored in a folder called Myst. Findings, which at first appears to be empty. But listen, you must then type the number 666 and a question will appear. I silly little question really, I don't know the answer to it. It goes: What follows you all day long, and climbs in bed with you every night. Like I said I don't know the answer to it, that's as far as I can lead you." Eggman paused for a moment and then said, "Thank you my friend, here is your check for 1.5 million dollars, I will be on my way now." Amy grabbed her purse with the  
emeralds in it and hopped up from her chair, then scurried as inconspicuously as she could out the door. Eggman turned his head just in time to see her foot disappear out of the door, causing him to jump out of seat and run toward the exit as he punched a button on a small keypad. Amy ran toward an alley as soon as she had passed through the exit. She had to get somewhere safe with the emeralds if Eggman was still here in the City. She turned a corner and increased her run down another alley, and although it was hard to see in the now pitch black darkness, she thought she could see a large trashcan sitting in the middle of the alley. She swung at it with her mallet, but it was much sturdier than she had suspected, and was  
knocked over by the shock of the mallet bouncing off of it. To her surprise, the trashcan turned around and glared at her with two robotic red  
eyes. What she had mistaken for a trash can was really a large and  
improved version of a familiar robot, with the number 0 painted on its  
chest.  
  
Temple in Great Desert: Same Time  
  
Sonic and Shadow climbed the huge stairs leading to the entrance way to the  
temple. The temple was old and crumbling, and obviously struck by an earthquake of some kind. By now Shadow had realized that this was the same temple where he had met Ghost in the past, and he told Sonic. Sonic nodded  
and said, "Well, it's definitely not surrounded by a lush rainforest anymore." Shadow and Sonic walked through the huge archway that served as a gate to inside the temple, and felt as though they had actually traveled 1,200 years to the past. The walls were carved with symbolic drawings of  
some ancient tribe, and pieces of pottery and other broken items were  
scattered across the floor. And worst of all, there was a huge chasm  
between them and the door leading to room where the time stone was, obviously torn apart by some huge earthquake. "Great, there's absolutely no way across then", grunted Shadow. Sonic surveyed his surroundings for a couple long minutes, and then looked at Shadow and smiled. "Oh don't tell  
me, another one of your insane ideas!", Shadow shouted. Sonic gave a chuckle and said "Well it's a longshot, but it might work! See that rope right there?" Shadow looked at the medium length dusty old rope lying on  
the ground. "Yes, I see it but it's not nearly long enough for us to swing across the pit", Shadow said, wondering what insane idea Sonic had.  
Sonic pointed up to a chandelier like formation of rocks on a very weak part of the ceiling and said, "See those rocks? I'm going to tie one end  
of the rope around my waist and you're gonna tie the other end around yours. Then I'm gonna have to make a flying leap and grab onto those rocks  
on the ceiling, and right when I grab a hold of the rock, you're gonna  
launch yourself in the opposite direction of the pit, and hopefully the ceiling is weak enough that it will collapse and form a bridge across the chasm." Shadow thought about this for a second as he tied the rope around his waist and said, "That just might work, but I'm also going to have to  
pull you out of the way before the ceiling collapses." Sonic tied the other end of the rope around his waist and said, "Well, we don't have time for speculation, so get ready, I'm gonna jump now." Shadow stood a couple  
feet from the edge of the pit while Sonic took about ten steps back and  
mentally measured the distance. He went into a spin dash and gathered speed, and then exploded out and ramped off an old fallen down statue and  
up toward the rocks. Sonic just barely made the jump and desperately grabbed a spike shaped rock jutting out from the ceiling, and then pulled  
himself up and hung tight with all of his might. There was just barely enough rope too, Shadow was teetering on the edge of the pit. Shadow then  
exploded in the opposite direction giving Sonic a huge tug as He clung tight to the rocks, and for a second he thought that maybe he was wrong and the ceiling wasn't weak enough to collapse, but then with a huge crash, the ceiling came down and Sonic was flung out of the way by Shadow pulling on  
the rope. The ceiling landed with a huge crash and formed a makeshift bridge across the chasm as Sonic landed with a thud near Shadow. "Well, it  
worked", Sonic panted as he undid the rope. They both carefully walked  
across the makeshift bridge, afraid that it would fall apart at the  
slightest disturbance. When they finally reached the other side, they  
walked through the door and saw who was waiting for them.  
  
Ghost was standing with a large sneer across his sinister face, holding the  
time stone in his right palm. And to his right, metal Sonic, and his  
left, Mecha-Shadow. "Shit!", Sonic and Shadow swore at the same time. "Thank you for that exclamation Sonic the hedgehog, I was going to give you time for last words, but since you're late I guess I'll just have to kill you straightaway." You could have seen the rage on Shadow's face from a mile away. "Listen asshole, you're the one who should be setting apart time for last words, you just wait to see what you look like after we're done with you!" Shadow screamed. Ghost smiled even larger and said, "But I think that you're forgetting that I have the time stone in my possession and your two metal counterparts, whose abilities undoubtedly surpass your  
own. This was too much for Shadow, and he burst forward at the white echidna at an incredible speed, but the echidna disappeared and appeared behind Shadow's back a second later, causing Shadow to trip. Ghost held the time stone up and said, "Tsk Tsk Tsk, you didn't really think you're faster than me without the time stone did you?" What he didn't know was  
that Sonic was faster. Sonic shot forward at Ghost and hit him with  
incredible force right in the stomach, causing him to fumble the time stone. Everyone moved at once. Metal Sonic and Mecha-Shadow flew toward their living counterparts, while Sonic, Shadow, and Ghost all dived for the  
time stone. Sonic seized the time stone and leaped out of the path of Metal-Sonic just in time, causing it to collide with Mecha-Shadow. Sonic turned around to run toward the exit, but Ghost landed a blow to his head, causing him to let the stone fly high into the air again. This time Mecha- Shadow caught it and began to fly up toward a hole in the ceiling, but both Sonic and Shadow homed in on his sides, and Mecha-Shadow fell to the ground  
but still held tight to the stone. Sonic whisked by and took the stone from the robot's clutches, but ran straight into his metal ego who in turn landed a kick to Sonic's stomach and took the stone. Metal Sonic threw it  
over to Ghost who caught it in his left palm, and when Shadow tried to blast forward toward him, a pair of cold metal hands seized him around the throat and pulled him to the ground. Sonic froze in shock, and Metal- Sonic took the opportunity to do the same to Sonic. The two hedgehogs were  
helpless against the robots superior strength, and were defenselessly pinned to the ground by their metal twins. Ghost finally spoke up, "Well, Well, Well my friends it looks like checkmate, but before I go there is one must thing I must do." He knelt down by the helpless Shadow and placed one  
of his sharp knuckles on the tip of Shadow's skull. "This is a little trick that was practiced in my old tribe", said Ghost in a maniacal kind of way. He started to bore his knuckle down into Shadow's head, but for some reason being careful not to hit a fatal spot. It was almost to terrible  
for Sonic to watch, Ghost was boring his blood covered knuckle into Shadow's head as Shadow let out a scream of pain. Ghost then stopped and closed his eyes, he looked as though he was searching for something. Sonic watched as Shadow writhed in pain, but it was a different kind of pain, a  
kind of emotional pain or torture. Shadow yelled out random fragments, "NO!!! DON'T PLEASE...MARIA!!!!!" What Ghost was really doing was bringing back Shadow's worst memories. Sonic watched helplessly as this continued for a couple more minutes, and then Ghost stopped and withdrew his knuckle, leaving Shadow to quiver on the ground. Metal Sonic and Mecha-Shadow then let go of the hedgehogs and flew toward Ghost, each one grabbing one of his  
arms and flying him up through the hole in the ceiling. "Sayonara hedgehogs!" , Ghost called as he was flown off by the two robots. Sonic  
dashed over to the his tortured friend and yelled, "SHADOW!!, ARE YOU  
OKAY?" Shadow suddenly sat up. The bringing back of his most horrible memories had driven him to the point of insanity. Shadow stared at Sonic  
with a kind of furious trance. Shadow was seeing red again.  
  
Whew. That was long. Okay thanks for all the reviews again (especially RavenGhost, you've reviewed like 4 times! But don't get me wrong keep it up!) That thing at the beginning was a song by Chevelle called The Red,  
most of you have probably heard it before. Okay in the next chapter: Knuckles and Rouge locate the secret file that Eggman was looking for on Eggman's computer, but can't figure out what to do until Amy comes along with the answer. What they find in the file is amazing. Shadow is on a mad rampage, can Sonic stop him or will he have to fight Shadow again? The next chapter will end up in an epic battle with the Metal Hedgehogs versus  
the real Hedgehogs in Station Square so don't miss it!  
  
P.S. If you've been wondering why I'm updating when there's nothing new,  
it's because I'm rewording some stuff and fixing punctuation errors and  
that kind of thing. 


	7. Awakenings

Wake me up  
  
Wake me up inside  
  
I can't wake up  
  
Wake me up inside  
  
Save me  
  
Call my name and save me from the dark  
  
Wake me up  
  
Bid my blood to run  
  
I can't wake up  
  
Before I come undone  
  
Save me  
  
Save me from the nothing I've become  
  
8:00 P.M.: Temple in Great Desert  
  
Sonic took a couple of steps back from the menacing black hedgehog that had a moment ago been the Shadow he knew. But when Sonic met eyes with him, he could tell that it was a different Shadow. It was a Shadow that had been  
tortured by his most horrifying memories and turned mad with rage, and Sonic could tell he wasn't going to exactly be a happy camper. "Shadow, just calm down, it's me, Sonic." Shadow's face grew even more distorted with fury, "I know exactly who you are blue hedgehog, you're the reason I  
was brought into this miserable world, and now you will pay along with everyone else!" The deranged Shadow blasted forward into Sonic, bowling him over and then blasting through the temple wall itself, causing it to  
collapse in a shower of rocks and dust. "What does he mean by that?", Sonic thought through the pain clouding his mind. He didn't have time to  
ask questions though, so Sonic got up and started to give chase to the  
hedgehog across the desert.  
  
Same Time: The new Egg Carrier  
  
Rouge turned around and whipped out her pistols, facing the robot who had  
just shot at Knuckles. Or rather the robots, there were about ten ridiculously armed robots facing her and Knuckles. For a few moments, no  
one moved or shot. Rouge took this opportunity to whisper in Knuckles'  
ear, "When I shoot, we'll run for our lives toward the door." Knuckles nodded. Rouge fired two single shots from each pistol taking out the robot  
in front in a fiery explosion, while Knuckles plowed a path through the  
middle by swinging his fasts wildy. Knuckles ran for the door as Rouge took the robots' attentions by gliding over their heads, pistols blazing. She dodged a laser from a bot by diving down into another's head. There were now 6 robots remaining, but Knuckles finally got the door open, and  
Rouge made a mad dash for toward the exit. Unfortunately, as she was crossing through the door a laser grazed her side, causing her to scream in pain. Knuckles picked her up and carried her through the door, slamming it  
shut on several approaching lasers. "Are you okay, Rouge?" Knuckles asked. She nodded but pointed behind them with wide eyes. Apparently they hadn't picked the best door to go through. Knuckles turned around to see a robot factory, with fleets of robots standing in rows with their backs to  
them. There were more of them being assembled every minute, almost too  
much to count. Knuckles put a finger to his lip and said in a whisper, "Can you walk?" Rouge nodded, but she was clearly in great pain. She got up and limped after Knuckles, clutching her side. Clearly he had a plan.  
They moved behind the cover of machinery and scrap parts, when finally Knuckles stopped at a point a little to the side of where the robots were  
standing. He got behind what looked like a control panel, and then did  
something completely unexpected. He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly, causing the rows of Eggman's robots to turn and face him. Rouge was thunderstruck, she couldn't see any reasoning behind what he had just done. "Come and get us!", Knuckles yelled before ducking under the desk. The sound of many lasers hitting the other side of the panel could  
be heard, along with the sound of robots marching in rows toward them. Rouge summoned up the rest of her strength to slap Knuckles across the face  
and say, "What the hell are you doing?" Knuckles just smiled and said, "Just wait and watch." Rouge had no clue what he planned to do, but put  
her trust in him. Knuckles peered over the edge of the panel again and  
said, "Come on, come on, just a few more steps." Knuckles then swerved  
around and hit a yellow button on the panel, just in time for Rouge to realize what the robots were now standing under. A giant trash compressor came crashing down and demolished the whole fleet of robots in an enormous  
crash, leaving a pancake sheet of robot parts on the floor. Knuckles turned and smirked at Rouge, and she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "Clever", Rouge said through her pain. Though she wouldn't admit it, Knuckles realized that Rouge was in too much pain to walk, so he threw  
her over his shoulder and started to walk toward the door that read, "Restricted Access, Authorized personnel only." He took out the wondrous little device that Tails had given him before they left and slid it into they keycard slot. Tails said that it could break any keycard lock to any door. Sure enough, when Knuckles slid it in, a green light flashed above and a mechanical voice chimed, "Access granted." Knuckles walked into the  
room with Rouge in his arms, and found a giant computer facing him. "Alright Rouge, I don't know how to work computers so you'll have to do the honors", Knuckles said as he slid her into the large, cushioned chair in  
front of the screen. Rouge nodded as she pressed a couple of keys that  
caused the computer to flicker in to life. A screen came up that said Password Identification Please. "Shit", Rouge exclaimed, "We should have expected this." Her ears sank in disappointment, put then suddenly pricked up again. "Knuckles, Tails said that he gave you a device, let me see it."  
Knuckles held up a small gold disk, and Rouge took and put it in the CD drive. It cracked the password easily, and soon they had access to all of Eggman's files. Rouge clicked around for a few minutes until she had found what she was looking for. "Here we go, here we have Eggman's latest and greatest plan to throw the world into chaos. It seems that once he gets  
the time stone, he will fly up to the A.R.K. moon-base, where he will broadcast his plan to the world. Then he will betray Ghost, and go back to  
the beginning of time by himself. There he will gain control of the monster chaos and build the Eggman Empire, in which he will rule all life forms on Earth." There was a moment of silence, and then Knuckles spoke  
up, "Well doesn't sound like he's changed too much now does it." Rouge laughed at this and said, "Well there's only one more thing we need to do before we leave, Tails asked us to check for that one file." She found the file using the tiny disk that Tails had given them, but it appeared to be empty. "Well that's interesting", Knuckles said sarcastically, "Now can we go." Rouge thought about this for a moment, but then said, "No, the file  
isn't empty, the information inside is just being hidden from us." Suddenly the two-way radio clicked on. Tails' frantic voice came over the  
speaker, "Knuckles...Rouge..., Listen to me very carefully..."  
  
Half hour earlier: Station Square  
  
Amy stared up with her big quavering eyes at the looming robot Zero. The  
robot scanned her with his mechanical eyes, and validified that she was  
holding the chaos emeralds. Zero's assignment had been to obtain the emeralds at any costs, so he whipped out his arm with the automatic laser  
rifle and prepared to pull the trigger. Amy however, was prepared this  
time, she was NOT going to let this happen again. She whipped out her  
special mallet, the Piko Piko Hammer, took a step forward, slammed the hammer into the ground, and launched herself clear over Zero's head using  
her special hammer jump. The surprised robot let go of the trigger too  
late, launching a laser into the thin air in front of him, while Amy pounded her mallet into Zero's backside. The mallet merely knocked Zero over, he was built too strong to be destroyed by a mere hammer, so Amy took  
the opportunity to run for her life. The robot pushed himself up and  
propelled himself after the pink hedgehog with his new rockets, firing lasers in Amy's direction. She did a somersault to dodge a laser, while  
managing to stay ahead of Zero by about 20 yards. "All those years of chasing Sonic finally paid off", she thought, surprised at her speed. A busy street crowded with traffic loomed ahead and Amy thought this might be her chance to lose her deadly pursuer. She hammer launched her self onto the top of a taxi, and clung with all her might to the roof, allowing the car to carry her off at 70 mph away from Zero, or so she thought. The wind whipped her face and screamed in her ears as people behind the cab leaned  
out of the windows and pointed at her, saying, "Look at that pink hedgehog!" Truth be told, she was used to this sense of speed, she had  
been carried in Sonic's arms many times before, and liked the familiar feeling. She stole a glance behind her just to make sure Zero was gone,  
but what she saw wasn't exactly comforting. She had to duck to dodge a laser as the rocket powered Zero creeped closer, propelling himself through  
the air by two giant blue flamed rockets. Amy jumped off the car at an intersection and raced down a sloped street in opposite direction of the oncoming traffic. She weaved her way in and out of the oncoming vehicles, their horns blaring at her. She saw a large construction board leaning up against a tow truck parked on the side of the road and aimed herself for it. Amy had seen Sonic pull this off before, and it seemed like her only hope of escaping Zero, so she let out every tiny flame of energy she had left and propelled herself toward the ramp. At the ramp's peak, she pushed her legs with all of her might and launched herself into the sky, higher than she had expected, soaring over the tops of small buildings and houses. She now understood why Sonic got such a thrill from what he did, the sense of speed and adrenaline rush was pure ecstasy, and for a moment Amy felt as  
though she had wings. She felt braver, stronger, more powerful, and  
happier than she had ever felt in her life. Here she was, being braver than she had ever expected she could be, acting like the blue hedgehog that  
she had admired for so long. She was now descending from her jump, and aimed for a balcony on the side of a large skyscraper. She landed with a soft pat on the balcony, and turned around with a sense of triumph blazing through her green eyes, but only for a second. She caught sight of Zero, helicopter blades whirling from the top of his head, flying up toward her.  
"IMPOSSIBLE!!!", Amy screamed into the night air. "That bastard is relentless", she mumbled. She looked around for another escape route, but it was to high to jump, and the steel door on the balcony was locked. The  
only way was up. Amy grabbed a hold of a window ledge above her and started to scramble upwards, climbing earnestly up toward the top of the building. She climbed several stories before she looked down to see Zero ascending up the wall below her with suction cups, and she had to jump to  
the window ledge next to her to avoid another laser. She climbed even faster, but the same drill continued for about 5 minutes, and once or twice Amy almost slipped and fell trying to avoid a laser, but pushed on with her newfound courage. Finally she reached the top and pulled herself over the ledge, running across the roof hoping too find a fire escape of some kind of entrance to inside the building. She had no such luck. Now the only thing left to do was to stay and fight. She watched Zero climb over the edge as she pulled out her hammer and got in her battle stance. The wind up on top of the skyscraper was beastly, blowing her quills all over her face, and she could feel the building swaying. Amy and Zero stood staring at each other for a few moments, each waiting for the other's first move.  
Amy decided to take the initiative, and she burst forward at the robot,  
hammer at the ready. Zero fired off a round of lasers, but Amy somersaulted under them, giving her just enough time to spring back up and launch herself directly in front of Zero. What followed was something of a swordfight between zero and his rifle and Amy and her hammer. Amy tried to knock the robots gun away and at the same time drive him toward the edge the giant building, while Zero tried to position his gun in front of Amy.  
Amy swung and jabbed with her hammer, driving the robot back while earnestly trying to keep the robot's laser rifle away. She finally drove him to the point for Zero was teetering on the edge. She channeled all of her energy to deliver three mighty blows to the robot, one on his head, one across his gun, and one straight in the chest, knocking him off the edge of the skyscraper. Amy leaned over the edge to watch him plummet down toward  
the street as he tried to take out his helicopter blades, but Amy had landed such a mighty blow to his head that it disabled everything in it.  
He landed with a satisfying boom and bright display of fireworks on the  
street below. "Bye Bye", Amy chanted as she waved to the smoldering wreckage. She turned around again with the same triumphant feeling, but once again it was lost in a second. Standing on the center of the roof was  
Eggman, sitting behind the controls of his Egg Walker.  
  
Tails had been flying over the city when he had spotted two figures on the roof of a skyscraper. One was much smaller than the other, and it looked as though they were standing and staring at each other. He pulled town the  
telescope function and zoomed in on the scene. He saw a small pink hedgehog and a large man in a mecha-walker staring at each other. "OH MY GOD, HOW DID HE FIND AMY!", Tails screamed as he floored the throttle and aimed for the building. He switched into walker mode and landed directly  
in-between the two. "Tails!", Amy yelled in happiness. Eggman made a  
disgusted face and said, "You always seem to get lucky and have someone come to save you, pink hedgehog, but I'll deal with the fox boy quickly."  
It was tails turn to make a furious face and retort, "Bring it on, Egg  
Boy!" Amy threw herself on the ground as the two mechs lumbered toward  
each other, machine guns blazing. Tails' Tornado was much more nimble, however, and was able to dodge much of Eggman's shots. The Egg-Walker on the flip side was much more powerful, and had damaged two of the tornado's legs after about 5 minutes. The robots crashed into water tanks and air vents on the roof as the battle raged on, causing destruction and mayhem all over as Amy tried to seek shelter. Hey eye caught hold of something shiny as she ducked behind a small rise. She picked it up in her gloved  
hands and blew off the dust, and a bright light broke through the night darkness in her hand. She was holding a power ring. "Tails!", she shouted  
as she stood up, "Catch this!" She chucked the power ring toward the Tornado, and Tails stood up to snatch the ring out of the air. He threw it into a valve in his machine and started to charge up for an massive attack, but made a terrible mistake in doing so. Eggman swung one of the mech's powerful iron fists straight into the Tornado, shattering the windshield and knocking Tails unconscious. "TAILS!!!", Amy screamed as the Tornado teetered on the brink of the skyscraper. She ran as fast as she could to  
try and stop it, but she was too late. The Tornado plummeted over the  
edge, much to Eggman's delight and laughter, and without having time to think, Amy dived off after it. She heard Eggman's laughter above as she realized what a stupid thing she had just done. She was now freefalling  
right behind the unconscious Tails and his machine, plummeting at an  
increasing speed toward the hard concrete. Amy brain froze for a few moments, but then she felt a strange, new emotion fill her. It was again  
the adrenaline and excitement of it all, and she realized that now, plummeting down toward the street at a deadly speed, she had to save her  
friend Tails, somehow, someway. She grabbed a hold on the back of the Tornado and tried with all her might to pull herself into the pilots seat, which was a hard task since they were falling vertically. She could see the figures on the ground getting larger as they neared their doom. She  
almost slipped on the slippery leather seat, but pushed herself on and  
hoisted herself in front of the controls. The concrete was approaching quickly. She had watched Tails pilot the machine before, and she hoped she could control the plane correctly. She pushed a yellow button to the side, which caused the tornado to sprout wings, and mumbled, "So far so good."  
They could be no less than 100 yards away from the concrete now. Amy pulled back on the throttle for all she was worth, she pulled so hard, in fact, that she thought that it might pop out. The plane started to level out, slowly, too slowly for Amy's peace of mind. They were but 50 yards  
from slamming into the concrete now, and Amy wasn't sure that the plane would level out in time. She pulled so hard on the throttle that her arm slipped and rammed into a small blue button on the control board, causing the Tornado to activate its retro boosters, greatly slowing their descent.  
The plane leveled out barely in time, scraping the tops of cars on the street as it began to ascend again. Amy rose to a fair altitude and then leveled out the plane, turning to the unconscious Tails in the seat next to her, trying to wake him. She should have felt enormously happy at what she had just done, but she wasn't. She had left the bag with the emeralds  
sitting on the roof with Eggman.  
  
Tails began to hear first, though his vision was still black he could hear  
a low, slow, voice coming from someone.  
"Taaiilllsssss...Waaaaake..uuuuuuup" The voice gradually got more  
recognizable as his vision started to clear. He felt a slap across his face, which now awakened him fully, accompanied by, "Tails you idiot wake up!" He bolted upright and stared into Amy's eyes, "Amy! How are we...we were falling off that building! Did you...." Amy just smiled. "Amy!! I can't believe it great job! But where is the bag with the emeralds?" Her  
smile quickly turned to frown. "Don't tell me you left them on the..OH COME ON!!!" Amy tried to stall her tears, "You know what god damnit Tails  
you'd think that its enough that I saved your life, but no, I make a mistake and now its back to Amy the loser! I was going to tell you what  
else I found out but I guess not, since you won't care anyway." Tails looked at Amy with an earnest expression, "What..What else did you find out  
Amy, tell me." Amy thought about whether or not to tell him while she  
brushed away a tear, under normal circumstances she wouldn't have told Tails until he apologized, but this could be important to the fate of the world that now lay in their hands. With a sigh, she related the story of how she had heard Eggman's conversation in the bar, up to the point where she had seen him on the rooftop. Tails looked at her with huge eyes and  
said, "That's the file I told Knuckles and Rouge to look for, I better radio them, they might also know where Eggman plans to go next, so we might have a chance of getting the emeralds back. But for the life of me I can't figure out that riddle...." Amy's ears pricked up, "Oh that's easy, you mean the one that goes: What follows you all day and climbs in bed with you  
all night? The answer is: your shadow."  
  
Back at the new Egg Carrier  
  
Knuckles hit the talk button on the radio and said, "We hear you Tails, what is it?" The young fox's high voice came over the speaker, "Have you found the file I asked you to look for?" Rouge took the radio this time and said, "Yes we have, but it's a ghost file, the information inside is hidden, so I'm hoping you have some answers for us." Tails chimed in, "Of course I do, Amy overheard a scientist from the A.R.K. giving directions to access the file, now listen, type the number 666." Rouge tapped the 6 key 3 times, and a riddle came up on the screen: What follows you around all day and climbs in bed with you at night? "Now listen, the answer to the  
riddle is: your shadow." Rouge typed in the answer and two separate  
folders popped up. "There are two files", Rouge said, "One's labeled  
findings on Chaos biblical prophecies, and the other's labeled Project Shadow." "Click on the Chaos one first", Tails instructed. Rouge did, and  
read the file aloud over the radio. It began: "The number 666 is an important number in many biblical prophecies. It is said to be the mark of the beast, a creature that will threaten the world toward its end. It is also said that the beast will return to earth two times, but in a different  
form. This is significant because when the monster appeared in station  
square, it was the June 6 1996, the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the decade. Chaos also took route in the building with the address of 666 Station Street. Most chilling of all, it says that all who bear the mark of the beast are inescapably doomed, and all the bodies found dead from the wreckage had the number 666 printed somewhere on their body. Also noted is that prophecies say that the beast will have 7 heads, which  
may be referring to Chaos' 7 forms. All noted may most likely be  
superstition, but is worth noting."  
  
"Afternote: Found only in select scriptures, there is a quote that reads, "And he who hath holds the sword of justice and blessed with the virtues of swiftness and courage, shall be burdened with the task of slaying the beast upon both of his comings, and he shall fail if he does not proceed to make a great sacrifice." The only connection we find with this quote is Chaos was defeated by a hedgehog obviously blessed with the virtue of swiftness.  
Again mere superstition, but worth noting."  
  
"That's the end of the first file", Rouge said disappointed, she was  
feeling as though this was a waste of time. Tails sounded a bit disappointed too, but said, "Now check the other." Rouge clicked on the file labeled Project Shadow and began reading: "I, Doctor Gerald Robotnik, have recorded this information so that it may not be forever lost, for I am one of the few on this colony that know these truths. Project Shadow was created with the object of creating a massively powerful military weapon, but it soon, however, turned into something much larger. We started out with animals mutated by radiation, but found the results futile. All the test subjects either died or lost too many brain cells to be useful. Our luck soon turned for the better, however, when one of our scientists came across a strange emerald on his vacation back to Earth. We researched the object thoroughly, and found it to be called a chaos emerald. We soon had rounded up all seven of these emeralds and began to test exposure to energy from them on animals, and the results fascinated us. The test subjects grew smarter, larger, more powerful, and had the power to harness the power of the chaos emeralds. We started with the prototype of a komodo dragon, but found that its lack of intelligence and reliance on instinct fatal to its success. One member of the team came up with an interesting idea, in one section of the colony there was a project that dealt with increasing  
the intelligence and physical abilities of animals. They had increased intelligence to a point where the animals had free will and could think for themselves, and had greatly increased strength, lifespan, and speed of the animals. They had done tests on a foxes, echidnas, cats, hedgehogs, and other various animals. Our team decided to base the creature off the genes of one of these animals, and we finally settled on a speedy, blue-colored,  
newborn hedgehog nicknamed Sonic by the research group. We took the hedgehog to our research facility in the space colony and used his genes to make a near perfect clone, the only thing we had left to do was expose the  
clone, now called Shadow, to the radiation of the chaos emeralds. Something, however, went wrong. During the exposure of the chaos energy to Shadow, the other hedgehog, Sonic, had escaped from his cage. Unknown to  
the scientists, he had scurried through an air vent to a spot directly above the radiation chamber. We started the radiation cycle, but unknown  
to us both of the hedgehogs got an equal dose of the radiation. This  
caused some complications. One of the hedgehogs was now loose on the premises. There was an alarmed sounded, and all the security guards on the premises were alerted to capture the animal, but none could catch it. It eventually found an escape pod and escaped, but it was assumed dead because the intelligence of these animals was not great enough to land safely on earth. The other hedgehog, Shadow, was studied greatly and nourished and cared for on the space colony. My daughter, Maria Robotnik, took a special  
liking to the creature, and became best of friends with it. As it grew  
older we found that the intellectual compassity of the creature was far  
greater than we had thought, it was capable of thinking for itself and  
experiencing emotions such as fear, happiness, and love. This became a  
major threat to the project, as it was designed as a military weapon to follow orders and carry them out. We are currently debating over what to do with Shadow, although the military sees at as a threat and would like to remove the creature. That is all I have to say about this project, I hope  
it will be useful to whoever comes across this information." Rouge  
stopped talking into the radio, and a profound silence filled the room.  
They had just found out more than they had ever known about Sonic and  
Shadow's past.  
  
The Capital City: 9 o'clock P.M.  
  
Sonic did not like the looks of this, not at all. Shadow was headed toward  
the city, and God knows what he planned to do. Shadow launched himself  
onto the up into the air and toward the city's major highway as Sonic followed with a worried countenance. Shadow landed perched on top of one of the large red steeples that ran along the bridge part of the highway as Sonic came to a stop at the foot of the steeple where Shadow stood. The black hedgehog turned his head upward to the sky and shouted in a disturbed and trembling voice just enough for onlookers to hear, "This is it Maria, I will avenge you! All these people will pay for what they've done to us!  
Most dearly the blue hedgehog, he is the reason I was brought into this pitiful world" He gazed down at a confused Sonic with his red, cloudlike gaze. There was a gasp from the crowd as he turned and slammed his shoes  
into the downward-sloping cable connecting the steeples of the bridge, grinding down with a dramatic shower of sparks and a loud screech. Shadow  
flew over the heads of the crowd and attempted to land full force into Sonic, who just had enough time to somersault away as Shadow slammed into the concrete, causing it to crack. Sonic had no other choice but to take  
off full speed against the oncoming traffic as Shadow thundered in hot pursuit. Sonic weaved and jumped over the oncoming traffic while Shadow plowed straight through it, causing the unfortunate victims in the vehicles to be flung off the bridge or into other oncoming vehicles. Shadow was now running full sprint alongside Sonic, and know he really felt like they were  
racing along the bridge of the A.R.K. locked in an epic battle to the death. Only now they were again locked in a battle to the death. "Shadow,  
why are you doing this, snap out of it!", Sonic shouted to his friend. "You fool of a hedgehog! I will rest only once I am finished with you!", Shadow replied with his glazed eyes. But Sonic could see something else in those eyes, something calling out to him. It was as if a small part of the old Shadow's consciousness was saying, "Find me and wake me up, Sonic the hedgehog." Sonic narrowed his eyes in determination. His friend needed him, Sonic, to save him, and he would not fail. The only problem was that  
he had no clue how to awaken the real Shadow. He dodged another one of Shadow's attacks and snatched a pole, gathering speed as he whirled around, launching himself onto one of the steep cables. His shoes emitted Showers of sparks as he screamed down the cable, and he could see Shadow grinding down the cable on the opposite side of him. The hedgehogs both flung off  
the ends and flew upwards into the night sky toward each other,  
dramatically meeting and brushing quills against the silhouette of the  
looming bright moon, giving everyone in the city a clear view of them.  
Shadow attempted to land a kick to Sonic's head, but he countered by ducking and launching a homing attack to Shadow's unsuspecting back. The  
two both plummeted down toward the street, the police by now in pursuit  
with cars, helicopters, and large missiles. As they fell Sonic caught sight of something shimmering in the air. Without having time to observe the object he snatched it out of the air, realizing once he had it in his hand that it was a golden power ring! He revved up into a ball and sped toward the street in overdrive speed, a yellow glow emitting from his palm  
as Shadow tried to keep up. He thundered over a series of loops at top speed, leaving just enough time for him to spot the oncoming truck headed  
toward him and Shadow. Thinking fast, he turned around just in time to shove Shadow out of the way and somersault to safety. Or so he thought. A police car swerved by, barely missing Sonic but causing Shadow to have to jump back to avoid it, and he hadn't realized that he was so close to edge of the highway. "Shadow, NO!!!", Sonic screamed as Shadow tumbled off the edge of the bridge, plummeting down toward the black, murky ocean water. Sonic burst forward with every drop of will power he had left in his body and snatched his friend's hand. The two hedgehogs' eyes met as Sonic held on to Shadow's hand, his figure swinging in the night air as Sonic hoisted him up. Sonic's blazing emerald green eyes pierced into Shadow's blood  
red gaze, searching his soul for the Shadow he knew.  
  
Shadow's thoughts during his rampage of fury had been like a turbulent  
storm cloud, filled with thoughts of hatred, violence, and destruction. Why had this blue hedgehog whom he had been trying to destroy just saved  
his life? His thoughts suddenly started to clear up as the hedgehog's emerald eyes stared at him, much like a stormy sky starting to clear. The other, normal side of Shadow was trying to surface amidst the trance he was now in. He felt as though the blue hedgehog now staring at him was talking  
to him, not through sound, but communicating with his soul through his eyes. It was almost as if he was calling, "Wake up Shadow, remember who  
you really are. Wake up the hero I know you are." There were now two equal sides of Shadow's thoughts now, the good, heroic side of Shadow that was fighting to resurface, and the other side, his rage, fury, and hatred, which was desperately trying to fight off the other side. It was as if  
his good side was about to breach the surface of an ocean of hatred and  
rage, but the tide was pulling it down. The sky of his mind was now  
desperately close to clearing, when suddenly the blue hedgehog kneeling over him spoke these wonderful words that had almost been forgotten, "Save them Shadow, give them a chance to be happy." To Shadow it felt as though he had breached water, come up for air, and suddenly been set free. His good side had overcome his evil. He turned to Sonic and said in a quiet,  
thankful voice, "You woke me up."  
  
Okay so I lied, the chapter didn't end with them battling the metal hedgehogs, I've moved that to later for more dramatics. Sorry I haven't posted in so long, I'm really busy with school, football, homework, and all  
that jazz so please forgive me. Please review this chapter, there will  
probably me only a couple more chapters after this because the story is  
about to reach is climax, so I wont tell you what happens in the next  
chapter you'll just have to wait. Chow. 


	8. Fighters

I don't wanna waste my time,  
  
Become another casualty of society!  
  
I'm never gonna fall in line,  
  
Become another victim of your conformity,  
  
Back down!  
  
Back at the Egg Carrier  
  
Rouge heard it first, the footsteps. Two sets of footsteps heading toward the room that they were seated. She whacked Knuckles over the head and motioned with her hand to listen. He strained his ear and scrunched his face up in a listening expression, and then his eyes grew wide. He scrambled up the wall and up onto the ceiling using his special knuckles to climb, while Rouge flew up to the ceiling and strained to position herself between two beams. They waited in silent anticipation as the footsteps neared, casting nervous looks at each other. Finally the mechanical door slid open with a whoosh, and in stepped the bad doctor, along with Ghost the echidna. Rouge stifled a revealing gasp as she looked down, and Knuckles almost slipped out of his position. Eggman had a greedy smirk slapped across his face as he emptied the contents of a brown bag onto the control board while Ghost looked on with his silent emotionless tenor. This time both Knuckles and Rouge had to stifle gasps, for before their eyes lay the 7 chaos emeralds, one shard off of the master emerald, and shimmering in Ghost's arms, all 7 time stones. The reflection glimmered in Eggman's dark glasses, covering up his greedy and deceptive eyes. "So, what do we do now doctor, we can't take this whole ship back in time, it would take more power than what lies in the time stones to do that", Ghost said a little arrogantly. Eggman swiveled around in his chair to face Ghost, "Well, that might have been a problem, only as usual I have a master plan. On the moon there was a secret base where one of the time stones was studied, they built an amplifier to increase the power of the stone, if even slightly. I, however, in my own genius, have tweaked the machine so that it is powered by the chaos emeralds, creating more than enough energy to bring along this ship." Ghost just nodded unemotionally. Eggman jammed a few buttons on the control board and the Egg Carrier was on its way to the moon. "Now we can sit back and reeeeeeellllllaaaaax!", Eggman said with a sigh. Little did he know that he was absolutely wrong, for Rouge had forgotten to turn of the two-way radio. Tails' high pitched voice blared out the speaker, "Knuckles, Rouge, are you guys still there?" Rouge swore and dropped the radio in shock, causing it to shatter into pieces right at Eggman's feet. Eggman and Ghost flicked their heads upward toward the ceiling where Knuckles and Rouge were hidden, their eyes meeting fiercely.  
  
Station Square: Same time  
  
"This can't be good", Tails muttered as he tried the radio again while Amy watched with a worried look on her face. This time there was only static. Tails looked over to Amy, who was looking past him with a wide-eyed expression. She pointed to behind him, but she didn't really have to because at that same time a loud roar was heard from all of Station Square. Tails looked behind him to see the Egg Carrier rise up from the ocean, a huge curtain of water spilling off the surface and thundering down into the ocean, causing huge waves burst from the surface. It's huge rockets blasted on in a blue blast of flame, propelling the monstrous aerial base at an upward angle through the atmosphere. "We have to follow it Tails!!" Amy looked at him with worry written across her face. Tails shook his head, "We have to find Sonic and Shadow first, they might have gotten the time stones, and we can't just leave them behind." But Amy was already way ahead of him. She jabbed a finger through the air, pointing at two figures standing on top of the bridge, waving furiously in their direction. Tails didn't need binoculars to figure out who they were. "Let's go pick 'em up!", he voiced enthusiastically. He pushed down on the throttle, pulling the plane into a low diving ark toward where Sonic and Shadow were perched. They both jumped into the back seats as soon as the tornado got close enough, both out of breath and sweating profusely. Tails spoke hurriedly, "Did you guys...get the time stone?" Sonic just looked down at his shoes, which Tails knew to be a sign of defeat. "How 'bout you, any success?", Sonic uttered. Amy looked in the opposite direction, and Tails decided not to say anything about her, "I guess we failed too", Tails said sullenly. Amy was trying her best to hold back tears while Tails debated silently whether or not to tell Sonic and Shadow about what they had found out in the secret file. "Well there's no time to lose, lets follow that ship!", Shadow said with an angry gleam in his red eyes, "I've got a personal score to settle!" Tails nodded and clicked a few buttons on the Tornado's control board. Amy gasped as a glass cockpit slid out and covered the area where they were seated, the wings folded in and angled out slightly, and the rockets slid out to replace the propellers. Tails spoke with a slight grin, "Let's fly."  
  
Back at the Egg Carrier  
  
There was no time to think for Knuckles, Rouge, Ghost, or Eggman. Everything just happened at once. Ghost flung himself up at the ceiling towards Knuckles, but was met by Rouge's foot, sending him crashing back into the ground while Eggman scooped up all of the emeralds into his greedy arms. Knuckles swooped down just in time to land a crushing blow to Eggman, the emeralds scattering across the floor, casing complete pandemonium. Everyone in the room scrambled for them at once, but Knuckles took only 1 chaos emerald and 1 time stone, as to prevent the other emeralds from being usable. He snatched Rouge's thin arm and scrambled for the door, ignoring the fact that it was closed. He smashed straight through the door with his fist, screaming across the large main hall lined with robots, Rouge right behind all the way. He hit the floor to dodge a volley of bullets, but had to jump straight up directly after to avoid Ghost's fist from impaling him. Rouge's pistols were again blazing as she ran, taking out rows of mechanical foes as she rolled and somersaulted to avoid their fatal attacks. Knuckles and Ghost were exchanging attempted kicks and punches at eachother in the center of the room, and Rouge saw this as her opportunity. She took root behind a large metal pillar and aimed her pistol directly at Ghost, trying to keep a steady hand as Knuckles and Ghost danced about. When she finally though she had a clear shot, she pulled the trigger, sending the lone bullet as a messenger straight to Ghost's heart. But to her great shock, Ghost just turned his head toward her, and disappeared into thin air before the bullet ever reached him. Knuckles took a few steps back in shock, and then turned to Rouge, and his eyes grew wide as he shouted, "ROUGE BEHIND YOU!" She swiveled around, only to come face to face with Ghost, the figure who had just vanished into thin air a moment ago, twirling a single time stone on his finger. "He must be able to use it...to warp back in time so he was standing right behind me a second ago!", she suddenly realized, although a little late. He landed a backhand slap to her chest, knocking one of her pistols onto the ground and sending her skidding across the floor to rest at Knuckle's feet. Now he could see that the only sensible course was to run. He hoisted Rouge up onto her feet and bolted toward the closest door, ducking to avoid Ghost's fist slashing down from midair. He reached the door, only to find Ghost already standing and blocking the threshold, but this time Knuckles was prepared and he sent a fist into the sinister echidna's stomach, hurtling him straight to the opposite wall. Knuckles and Rouge ran through the doorway, only to feel a rush of extremely cold air and fierce wind. They had landed themselves on the sky bridge. The two ran across the bride a little ways, but Knuckles was soon bowled over by a fist that came out of nowhere. The sinister figure was Ghost once again faced him, and he knew that the only answer this time was a fight to the end. Rouge watched as the two echidna's faced each other, glared into the others eyes as if trying to bore into them as deep as possible, then touched a hand to the other's head, undoubtedly some ancient guardian ritual, a ritual performed before a duel to the death. The both jumped back and remained still for a moment, but just a moment, before all hell broke loose. Punches and kicks flew furiously, each echidna fighting with every ounce of will and strength that their mortal bodies would allow. Knuckles and Ghost both moved and attacked with extreme agility and precision, although Ghost had a cutting edge with the time stone. Rouge watched the scene helplessly from the side, and although most of the attacks were dodged, many blows still were landed to both Knuckles and Ghost. Blood flew through the air as they fought, spilled from both bodies. It went on like this for some time, both echidnas leaping about the length of the bridge, ducking and weaving to evade and land attacks on their victim, fighting with everything they had. Then, suddenly, the angle of the ship rose drastically as it began to rise up through extremely thick clouds. Knuckles, Rouge, and Ghost were all caught off guard and lost their balance, causing them to tumble down the now slope of the sky bridge, toward an indeed horrible fate. One of the ship's giant fans lied at the end off the slope, sucking them in with its horrible, huge, spinning, metal blades. Knuckles dug his claws into the surface of the bridge to brake his fall, snatching Rouge as she tumbled by him, bringing her in close protectively. She could smell the blood that he was covered in. All things 3 inches from their eyes were obscured from vision as soon as they entered the clouds, and Rouge nearly panicked. Suddenly, a foot came crashing down on one of Knuckles hands, causing him to slip and fall even closer to the horrible fan as he dug his knuckles deeper into the surface. Ghost leaned forward enough so that he could stick his evil face close enough to Knuckles eyesight and pronounced, "Farewell, you sorry excuse for a guardian!" With that, he slammed his fists into Knuckles own, causing him to slip, falling down toward the fan with Rouge in his arms. Although he could not see it do to the clouds, Ghost heard a scream, a gunshot, and a shredding sound. "The stupid bat probably shot herself on the way down", Ghost thought. It was over. Satisfied, he turned and began to climb back up, a victorious grin plastered all across his face.  
  
Ghost stepped into the control room, where Eggman sat waiting for him. "Well, what happened", he asked expectantly. Ghost grinned and said, "I retrieved the stones that the red echidna took, and I don't think you'll have to worry about either him or that bat anymore." To his surprise, Eggman looked a little shaken, and said, "Are..are you sure they're..dead?" Ghost raised and eyebrow and nodded. "You confuse me doctor...you say that you would like nothing better than the destruction of these creatures, yet you look very disturbed at their riddance." Eggman turned to face him and said very defensively, "I'm very glad their gone! I was just worried that they might have survived, they seem to have an extraordinary ability to avoid death numerous times!" But his eyes lied, and Ghost once again just shrugged. They both looked at the giant screen which was now projecting a frontward view of the outside of the ship. They were now rising up out of the atmosphere, and a brilliant view of outer space burst into view as Earth became visible as a giant sphere below. Eggman pressed a button and the ships speed greatly increased, in order to allow them to get to the moon in a matter of hours versus days. As Eggman fixated on the brilliantly shining emeralds sprawled in front of him, he failed to notice the small, blue rocket on radar that was pursuing them all the way. Little did he know that inside that small, blue rocket, Sonic, Shadow, Tails, and Amy were eagerly waiting to stop him from whatever he planned to do next. He was also unaware that a certain bat and echidna were still on board, perfectly well alive.  
  
When Ghost had thought that he had defeated Knuckles, he had forgotten one thing. No one insulted Knuckles like that and didn't live to regret it. When Ghost had caused him to slip and fall toward the fan, he had to think fast. He had snatched a screaming Rouge's pistol, aimed the best that he could with the extremely thick clouds, and shot a single bullet into the dead center of the fan, knocking the main gear that turned the fan out of commission. However, the deadly fan had not stopped right away, it kept spinning, gradually slowing down. So thinking fast again, Knuckles aimed himself for the dead center of the fan, where all the blades met and he could not be cut to pieces. Knuckles had to hold on to Rouge with all of his might to prevent her from being sucked into the still spinning fan, but that didn't prevent her vest from being ripped off and sucked in, causing a loud shredding noise, also fooling Ghost into thinking that it was them who had fallen into the fan. Knuckles held on to the center of the fan and Rouge with all his might for what seemed like an eternity until the fan had stopped spinning. Knuckles knew that they had to get inside the ship soon, they would soon be leaving the atmosphere, and it was getting freezing, especially for Rouge who was not use to these extreme conditions, and now, due to the loss of her vest, was practically in undergarments. Knuckles grabbed Rouge's cold body and started to feel climb up the sky bridge, only able to tell where he was going by feeling, due to the clouds getting thicker still. He finally found the door at the end and flung it open, throwing himself and Rouge inside and behind a stack of crates, slamming the door after him. Rouge was hyperventilating, partly from the fear and partly from the cold, while Knuckles wiped the crimson blood from his open wounds and tried to catch his breath. Knuckles went over to Rouge and pulled her in tight, partly to warm her, and partly just because he wanted to. She looked back at him with a smile and gave him a long kiss. They were going to have to wait here until the ship landed, so they might as well be happy.  
  
4 Hours Later: Above the moon  
  
Amy, Tails, Shadow, and Sonic all watched as the giant Egg Carrier touched down in front of the A.R.K. secret moon base on the dusty, barren, surface of the moon, kicking up a huge cloud of moon dust. Tails took the opportunity to land also, but he instead landed on the surface of the Egg Carrier to avoid detection from its radar. Tails spoke up, "Well, what's the plan now?" Everyone looked a little shocked at this, "You don't have a plan", Amy exclaimed. "Well..no", Tails said a little taken aback. Sonic spoke, "Come on..since when we have ever needed a plan, its not like they ever work anyway, right? Everyone just go out and do what they do best!  
Shadow and I are gonna bust in there and do whatever we can to destroy whatever Eggman's plan is, and you guys find Knuckles and Rouge, and just  
do whatever you can stay help us!" "Sounds like a plan", Shadow  
exclaimed.  
  
Little did they know that landing on the surface of the Egg Carrier did not, in fact, do anything to shield them from the eyes of Eggman and Ghost. They were ignorant to the fact that Eggman and Ghost were not in fact in the Egg Carrier, but sitting in the control room of the A.R.K. moon base, and the two evil figures were watching their every move via a surveillance camera. "So those rats managed to follow us here in that scrap of a plane! Not that I didn't expect it, they always seem to have a miraculous ability to wedge themselves in every nook and cranny of my plans!" Ghost spoke in his monotonous tone, "You want me to destroy them?" Eggman smiled and said, "No..lets see if they can make it to me first, and if they can, let them come and see if they think they can beat me! I'll have a few surprises along the way!"  
  
Tails had found that the area around the moon base had a sort of artificial atmosphere, so it would be okay to step outside, but he warned everyone that they would be half there normal weight, and everyone found it humorous when Sonic ignored his warning, jumped out of the cockpit, and stumbled in a series of cartwheels and somersaults. Once Sonic and Shadow had climbed out, Tails switched the Tornado into its walker form and lumbered away toward the back of the moon base, Amy pouting about how she never got to do anything in the passenger seat. The two hedgehogs looked at each other and nodded. They both knew the gesture to mean, "Let's go." They zoomed off toward the moon base, kicking up a storm of dust behind them, as they neared, Shadow asked, "So, how do we plan on getting in?" Sonic just smiled and said, "Easy! We walk through the front door!" As he said this, the security machine guns began to fire, and several guard robots sprang into life. The two hedgehogs somersaulted under the volley of bullets, then leapt up extra high due to the low gravity and took out the guns with sweeping kicks. Sonic started to rev up for a spin dash in midair while Shadow gracefully floated through the air and homed off the robots heads, landing back behind them and causing them to turn away from Sonic, who unleashed his dash before he even hit the ground, blasting through every last robot. Both of the hedgehogs landed back on the surface softly, then both charged up for an amazing spin dash at the same time. They unleashed themselves simultaneously, sending themselves blasting through the steel front door with a huge crash. "That was cool!", Sonic said enthusiastically.  
  
Tails' Tornado continued to lumber around the perimeter of the moon base, taking out security cameras with its machine gun as he went, with Amy Rose complaining all the way, "I never do anything....Why do the boys get to do everything....I saved your butt last time now didn't I.....This is so unfair!" Tails tried to ignore her and keep his concentration on controlling the machine, didn't Amy realize that this wasn't just a game anymore? They were seriously fighting for the future of the planet, or maybe Amy did realize it, and she just wanted to be a part of it. He looked over to the little pink hedgehog and saw almost a kind of fire in her emerald green eyes. He knew where he had seen that before, in Sonic's eyes. Maybe Sonic didn't realize it, but those two really were perfect for each other, and whether Sonic liked it or not, Amy would never give up on him. He became so fixated by this that he lost his focus on piloting the machine, and crashed into some kind of object, jerking Amy him forward violently. He maneuvered the machine a couple steps back, only to find that he had run into a heavily armed guard robot. Acting fast, he locked on to the mechanical foe and pulled the trigger, sending the unfortunate scrap into a fiery explosion. Bad idea. As if on cue, about 30 other guard robots sprang into life. Tails could hear Amy gasp sharply, and for a moment his brain froze. It thawed, however, as soon as a round of bullets pinged off the Tornado's metal hull. Tails took advantage of the low gravity to thrust himself up at least 200 meters, making him a much smaller target. He unleashed a new ability that he had installed in the Tornado, electromagnetic seeking missiles, or killer robot seekers in English. A couple of the deadly projectiles hit their targets with a loud boom, but for the most part, these suckers were smarter than your average Eggman robot. They pulled out their heavy weaponry and shot the projectiles right out of the air. Amy had been reduced to sinking low in her seat and whimpering, and Tails gasped as he bit his tongue hard in concentration, his brow furrowed from the mental strain of trying to maneuver the metal walker smoothly. He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead as he deduced that the only method to destroy them would be from the Tornado's guns. He locked on to a groub of metal-heads as he descended slowly and pulled the trigger, pumping bullets rapidly from the Tornado's guns, but to his dismay, the metal projectiles bounced off the steel skin, not causing any more damage then a dent. The only way now was straight out, machine to machine, physical combat. As Tails touched down, he swiveled the cokpit around 90 degrees and slammed it into a by-standing robot, taking off its entire upper section. Amy yelped as she was thrown forward from the impact, and Tails stomach was thrown into the steering wheel. He reluctantly charged headlong at a cluster of robots with the front propeller spinning madly, chopping up the metal fiends as he charged through them despite the frantic tossing and jerking of the two creatures bodies. Tails made another attack by jumping sideways into a group of 3 robots, slamming metal on metal with sparks flying and explosions rocking the Tornado's hull. It went on this way for a few more minutes, and Tails didn't know if he, much less Amy, could take the physical abuse. He was starting to make some slip ups in controlling the machine, and before he knew it, he had caught one leg on the other and tripped the machine. Amy was thrown into him from the other side of the cockpit as it slammed into the ground, shrieking all the way. Tails cocked his head to look out of the cracked glass windshield, only to see all of the remaining robots aiming their machine guns at them. Tails shut his eyes and clenched his teeth, taking in what he thought what be his final smell and taste of the dry moon air, waiting vicariously for the moment of doom. But to his surprise and joy, instead of a dreaded gunshot, he heard a mad, furious high pitched battle cry, and felt something zoom past him at high speed. He opened one blue eye to see Amy, mallet raised and a crazed look in the eye, dashing out into the cold, dark, moon air toward her unfortunate victims. BAM!!! POW!!! CRUNCH!!! It was like watching a hurricane. The little pink hedgehog was everywhere at once, slamming her mallet into every robot in proximity. The soft, vulnerable hedgehog that he had seen a moment ago was now gone, a fierce warrior Amy taking its place. Once Amy had demolished everything in her sight, she turned to face Tails, leaning on her mallet in her victory stance. Tails looked in shock, partly at what Amy had just done, and partly the thing that was standing directly behind her. She had overlooked one robot, which was perched behind her with its gun pointed at the back of her head. Tails opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Amy somehow got the impression that something was wrong, and swiveled around to come face to face with the deadly foe. She looked at it in intense shock as she prepared for her horrible doom, one....two....THREE...but to Amy's great joy, instead of the deadly gunshot, all she saw was a spiked fist slam into the robot's head, sending it flying clear out of view. She turned to face her savior, who she expected to be Knuckles the echidna, but she instead came face to face with...Ghost the echidna!  
  
Ok you've reached the end of the chapter. The story will conclude next chap, and it will probably be a long one. Sorry for the cliffhanger there at the end but you'll have to live with it. Next chapter will see the return and faceoff with the metal hedehogs, as well as everyone locked in mortal combat with pretty much everyone else. Please review this chapter bye.  
  
O yeah, the song at the beginning was called fat lip and its by sum 41 


	9. Finality

They can't tell me who to be  
  
'Cause I'm not what they see  
  
And the world is still sleepin'  
  
While I keep on dreamin' for me  
  
And they'll want just whispers,  
  
And lies that I'll never believe.  
  
And I want a moment to be real  
  
Wanna touch things I don't feel,  
  
Wanna hold on and feel I belong.  
  
The surface of the moon: Time no longer matters  
  
Sonic realized this fact, that time no longer mattered, as he stepped  
through the dark threshold of the moon base. Time no longer mattered, because it could be manipulated at the free will of whoever held the time stones, and with Eggman currently in that position, God knows what could happen. He looked over to Shadow and somehow knew that he was thinking the same thing. But then Shadow spoke quietly, "No, you're wrong. Time still  
matters, at least for now, its kind of ironic, actually. Every second  
matters right now, we need to get to Eggman as fast as we can, or time won't matter anymore. Time is our enemy, even though we're trying to save  
it." Sonic raised an eyebrow in an expression that said, "What?", and Shadow just shook his head. The two hedgehogs both looked at what kind of challenges lay ahead of them. Before their eyes lay a huge, futuristic, highly technological antechamber, with a huge fluorescent pillar jutting up from the center, surrounded by a complicated looking console with numerous holographic screens displaying information. The outer wall was lined with large steel doors, and beyond each lay a huge tunnel, each branching off in  
a different direction towards different parts of the station. Shadow jumped up in surprise when Eggman's loud and obnoxious voice came booming  
over the speakers suspended from the ceiling. Sonic, however, had been expecting it. He could almost even guess what Eggman was going to say word  
for word. "Well Well Well, if it isn't my old pal Sonic! And look, he brought along another familiar looking pet also! (Shadow barked an angry snarl in remark to this) Well, I can't say I wasn't expecting you to come dropping in on my party, so I invited a couple of my friends! What's the matter Sonic, you're looking awfully blue? Maybe if I'll send Ghost out to  
fetch a couple of your pals as well, if it would cheer you up a bit!" Sonic just rolled his eyes, by now he knew better than to not expect Tails  
and Amy to be taken custody by Eggman, using them as bait. "You have exactly five minutes to arrive at my door or I'm afraid I'll have to kick your friends out. For good." Shadow was slightly shocked as Sonic tried to stifle a laugh, "Wow Eggman, your really gonna make me gain weight, I mean five minutes! I could more exercise by taking a stroll through the park!" Eggman seemed to find amusement in Sonic's comment as well. "Oh  
don't worry Sonic, I won't let you lose that slimness, in fact, I think  
I'll have you run dry by the time this is over. You see, I thought you were getting a little cocky, so I invited some new competition into town. Now there are two new competitors joining the race, deadly competitors." Sonic and Shadow's eyes flicked upward as they followed the descent of two dark forms from the ceiling. At the same time a single door lit up on the  
wall and slid open, obviously the way to Eggman's lair. Eggman was  
challenging them. "Damn robots will never be able to top me", Shadow  
hissed.  
  
Amy looked over the sinister echidna's form with a strange mixture of rage and fear. The echidna gave off an even more sinister vibe than Shadow had described, she thought. She fingered her mallet ferociously, although she  
somehow sensed it would do her no good in a struggle with this sinister foe. Ghost spoke up, "I'm glad I found you, Dr. Eggman has requested your prescense, and he sent me to pick you two up." He motioned to both Amy and Tails and gave a look that surely said, "If you don't get up and come on your own, I'll have to make you, and it won't be pleasant." This however, was pushing one of Amy's more dangerous buttons. She would not, under any  
circumstances, be captured and used as bait for Sonic, not ever again. Tails was surprised as she raised her mallet in a battle ready position and stated matter-of-factly, "We're not going anywhere with you, try and make me, asshole." Ghost flashed and evil smirk across his thin lips and raised a spiked fist dangerously, planning to send it clobbering straight into the  
pink hedgehog's head, knocking her out." Amy stepped back in fear, realizing what a mistake she had just made as Ghost started to bring his  
fist down through the air. But before the fist could make contact with  
Amy's head, another fist came and knocked it straight out of the air,  
sending Ghost skidding across the dusty moonscape. In his place was  
Knuckles, standing tall and firm with a vicious look in his eyes, with Rouge limping behind him. Knuckles turned to Tails and Amy and spoke with authority, "You two need to get out of here now, let me handle this, I have a personal matter to settle!" He glanced back at Rouge and added, "Take  
Rouge with you, she's hurt. Go and try to find Sonic and Shadow, help them, everything depends on them now." Amy nodded as she offered her arm to Rouge. She ran back to the Tornado as fast as she could while trying to support Rouge, who appeared to be in great pain as she hopped along on one foot while clutching on to Amy. As they clambered into the passenger seat of the Tornado, Amy caught a glimpse from the corner of her eye of Ghost standing up, only to begin charging in their direction. Somehow she wasn't  
worried about it; she knew that Knuckles would take care of him. "Hang  
on!!", Tails shouted as he engaged one of the Tornado's many different forms. Tails' machine was truly a mechanical wonder. The legs popped out from under them, only to be replaced with a set of 8 wheels, a metal sheet of armor slid over the back-half of the cockpit, a huge jet jutted out of the rear, and the front nose starting spinning dangerously, resembling a  
giant drill meant to bore through anything in its path. Amy closed her  
eyes as the machine blasted into motion, rocketing them off with a boom toward the moon base. Amy shouted over the roar of the machine, "Are we  
really going to go find Sonic and Shadow?" Tails shook his head with a  
silent determination and said, "No. We're going to pay Eggman a little  
visit."  
  
Knuckles cocked his head to face his foe, who was standing about 10 yards behind him with a look of disbelief. Ghost spoke up, practically foaming at the mouth, "How many times do I have to kill you, damn red echidna!" Knuckles grinned, "Do you really think you can kill me even once?" Ghost was seething, "Who are you?" Knuckles hardened his face and said clearly, "I'm Knuckles the echidna, ninety-ninth in a long line of dangerous guardians. You don't know who you're dealing with." The white echidna's eyes widened, "On the contrary, I know exactly who I'm dealing with, Knuckles. I'm afraid it's you who's mistaken!" But just then, the Tornado zoomed off with a loud whoosh, and Ghost swiveled around to face the machine. "No!!! They will not escape", the stunned echidna cried as he took off in pursuit of the machine. He was met by a fist in the back, sending him sprawling into the moon dust. "I don't think so. You'll have to deal with me first." Ghost got up and faced Knuckles, "If it's a fight you want then so be it!" Without further words, the two enemies flung themselves at each other, once again locked in a battle to the end.  
  
Sonic and Shadow looked at each other as their metal egos touched down with an echoing clang on the steel floor. Both glanced into the other's eye, and knew what they had to do. They had to do what they always did, what they did best. The two hedgehogs fixed their gaze on the two sinister metal foes in front of them, took a step back, and were off faster than the two metal fiends' artificial minds were able to process what happened, whooshing by their foes with a sonic boom. They heard the sound of their nemesis's rockets firing off as they blasted into the tunnel that branched off behind the door that was lit. Five minutes, that's all they had, Sonic thought. Five minutes to somehow beat these metal arch-enemies and get to Eggman before he could do Amy and Tails in. Neon lights projected from all around danced across their forms, changing Shadow's fur from black to orange to yellow to red to pink to green...all in a second. They were bolting through a huge glass mechanical tube shaped tunnel, twisting and turning in strange angles and directions while strange sights rushed by, visible through the clear glass. Somehow, the two robots pulled up level with them, Sonic and Shadow found themselves sandwiched between metal Sonic and mecha Shadow. Sonic and Shadow both leapt up as their enemies both rammed sideways, attempting to crush Sonic and Shadow between them, but instead ran into each other, finding that their enemies were no longer there. This gave the two real hedgehogs some time to get ahead. Before them lay an almost 90 degree upward slope, and Sonic could tell that what Eggman had prepared for them was something of a high speed death chase through an absurd death machine. The slope was lined with spikes, lasers, mounted machine guns, and other dangerous contraptions. Sonic and Shadow had no time to stop and plan out a route, however, and they started to thunder up the dangerous slope, running up the side of the tube to avoid a set of jutting steel spikes, and then rolled to avoid a spinning blade. Sonic sensed that the two fiends were close behind, well not really sensed as much as caught there reflection in the razor sharp shiny blade that sliced across his path. He decided to try to play a dangerous game of chicken with the robots, getting as close to a crisscrossing pattern as laser beams as possible before pulling out and running up the side of the wall the ceiling, running literally upside-down, kept on the ceiling only by the force of his speed. Shadow, meanwhile, was weaving in and out of the path of machine gun fire and lasers, trying to fool his metal- counterpart into running into one of the deadly obstacles. Their efforts proved futile, however, their enemies' reflexes proved to fast. The glass tube shattered as bullets slammed into it, causing it to constantly crumble away behind their feet. The slope finally leveled out with Metal-Sonic and Mecha-Shadow trailing right behind the two hedgehogs. Just as soon as the track had stopped going up, it took an extremely sharp plunge downward, sending the two hedgehogs and their counterparts thundering downwards. The two hedgehogs both looked at each other as they gained speed, both realizing that the clock was constantly ticking. Metal Sonic and Mecha Shadow made another attempt to trip up their opponents, this time blasting forward like a bullet toward Sonic and Shadow's backs. Luckily, both of the hedgehogs were able to catch the reflections of the metal fiends, and they dodged the attack by running up the side of the tube, causing the mechanical foes to catch nothing but the thin air. At the bottom of the slope lay a huge ramp, obviously the only way over the huge chasm that lay after it. The two hedgehogs channeled all their strength to their furiously pumping legs, gaining even more speed, and launched themselves off the top of the ramp, soaring over the dark pit, their two pursuers not far behind. The clock was still ticking.  
  
Knuckles punched, kicked, and lunged at Ghost with vigor that the white echidna had not known him to possess. All Ghost could do was dodge his attacks using his ever-powerful time-stone, but still he could not land an attack on Knuckles, the red echidna was moving to fast. He lunged and slammed his fist at every hint of his white foe he could find, sometimes even predicting where he would reappear after warping with the stone. As Ghost was slammed into the gray, dusty moon soil that seemed to float up into the air and not want to come back down, he realized that he stood no chance against this amazing red foe. He had known many echidnas that were his size and stature, but this one was special. This one had some special power in him that went beyond his physical stature, something bigger. Whatever it was about this echidna, Ghost knew that he stood no chance against him. The realization sunk in as the Knuckles charged at him with a crazed look in the eye. There was only one option: to run like hell and get out of his way. He channeled his energy into the time stone, warping himself into the future and ahead of the crazed Knuckles by about 10 yards. He turned and began to pump his legs furiously, bolting in the direction of the A.R.K. base. He had already messed things up, he had let the fox and pink hedgehog slip through his fingers, and they were crucial to Eggman's plan. "Well, screw Eggman", he thought. His plan all along had been to betray him, but now he would have to do it sooner. "All the pieces are in place, now all I need to do is kill either the blue or black hedgehog." Without one of them, the prophecy could not be fulfilled, and he would know that he was safe. He found both the hedgehogs presences unsettling, unsettling in a powerful sort of way, and he would be glad to be rid of one of them. He chanced a look behind him, and caught sight of Knuckles, who was unnervingly close behind, thundering like a de-railed train in pursuit of him, his eyes having a bloodthirsty luster. Ghost was running out of energy, but he still ran with all he had, using the time- stone every chance he got to warp as far ahead of the raging Knuckles as possible. As he frantically neared the A.R.K. base, his eyes detected an unsettling noise. "4.5 minutes till time cycle engages", the speakers blared in it's monotonous voice. He swore silently and punched through the thick metal wall as though it were paper, sending himself through the tunnel and toward Eggman's time-cycle machine as fast as possible while the clock ticked away.  
  
Sonic and Shadow landed back on the hard ground with a soft thump, side by side. They immediately started up their legs again, propelling themselves through another tunnel toward Eggman as their bright surroundings flashed by in a blur. Shadow could hear the loud whir of their metal counterparts' motors not far behind. The tunnel took another sharp dive, and Sonic got the impression that they were going deep underground. Both hedgehogs maneuvered themselves up the side of the tunnel to avoid a sinisterly crunching guillotine, then rolled under a giant spinning blade. Metal Shadow simply blasted right through the blade, causing it to snap in half as it made contact with his steel frame. Sonic and Shadow realized that they had to do something quick to rid themselves of their foes, or they would have to waste precious time fighting them, jeopardizing the safety of their friends, and the entire world. Sonic looked at his surroundings, wondering how these robots could possibly be destroyed; bullets, blades, and almost everything else were useless against their metal skin. The glass tunnel took a sharp turn, revealing a long straightaway which opened up into a large, high ceiling room. But what bothered Sonic was what lay on the other side. In the center of the room a large pillar filled with a glowing neon-blue liquid jutted up from the floor to the ceiling, on it mounted a huge cannon, pointing straight in he and Shadow's direction. It was being fed the blue-liquid through large tubes, obviously charging up for a huge, deadly, laser blast that would not be survivable. It was now or never. Sonic knew that he had to come up with a way to defeat these metal nuisances now. He could not overcome them by force, but he knew that he could outsmart them. What these robots did not have was the ability to think outside the box. Or in this case, the tube that they were now racing through. He looked over to Shadow with large eyes, and saw that he was shared his thoughts. With adrenaline coursing through both their veins to the point of explosion, they charged forward through the tube toward the cannon at full speed, causing their metal egos to gain speed with them. Sonic took it all in: the brilliant multicolored lights bouncing and reflecting all over the sides of the glass, the intense speed, the intimate approaching danger, this was what he lived for. As they neared the cannon, which could be heard charging up with a loud whir, Sonic and Shadow got ready. They had to judge the exactly right moment, or the plan would not work. Shadow looked over to Sonic, and he saw the message in Shadow's red eyes, "now." In the split second before the cannon fired its thundering blast, the two heroes sprang up from the floor of the glass tunnel, crashing through the ceiling, sending shards of glass flying as they soared upward into the dark space above the tunnel. The metal fiends below didn't even have time to be stunned, for right away, the cannon's barrels sent a huge blast of blue laser exploding through the glass tunnel, vaporizing the unfortunate Metal Sonic and Mecha-Shadow and everything else in the tunnel. Sonic and Shadow clasped their hands in victory as they crashed back through the ceiling, landing back on the floor of the tube with a soft thud. They knew they didn't have time to rejoice, however, and they raced on through the room with the now inactive cannon. Beyond lay only a large bridge across another black pit, stretching on straight farther than Sonic could see. As if to mock them, a large red screen on the ceiling displayed a clock, counting down how much time they had left. 1:00. One minute to save the world. Sonic and Shadow ran with all the will power and energy that they possessed.  
  
Everyone was running now.  
  
Tails, Amy, and Rouge were running. They were racing through the walls of the base in the Tornado, racing toward Eggman and his time machine. They were running to Sonic and Shadow's aid  
  
Ghost and Knuckles were running. They too were crashing through the interior of the A.R.K. base, running toward the time stones and chaos emeralds that lay in Eggman's time machine. Ghost ran in greed, he must get to the stones and use them for his own purposes before Eggman could. Knuckles ran to protect, it was his sworn life-duty to protect not just the master emerald, but it was also his duty to protect the world.  
  
Sonic and Shadow ran. They burned across the track, thundering toward Eggman and his evil plan, side by side, sharing their common goal. Shadow ran out of revenge, to revenge what Ghost had done to him, to revenge Eggman's lies to him, to avenge Maria and save the world again. Sonic ran. Sonic ran because he was meant to, because he had to. He ran to be a save the world.  
  
Eggman stood in front of his brilliant time machine as it gave off a white aura, powering up for its use. It was made of a large, glowing control board in which lay the 7 chaos emeralds and time stones, encircled around a large, bulletproof, hedgehog proof, tube where the reaction would take place, sending this whole room back to the beginning of time. He had everything he would need to build an entire empire in this very room. Everything was going according to plan. He had sent that nuisance white echidna off to fetch Amy and Tails, but hadn't told him that he would start the time machine so early. He would never make it in time. And as for Sonic and Shadow, there was no way that they could survive the race of death that he had prepared for them, especially the cannon blast. For some reason, this did not make him very happy. True, Sonic was the worst possible nuisance, always foiling his plans, but if Sonic was destroyed, it would almost be like losing a part of him. He quickly tried to shun away this alien thought, but it was no use. How ironic, he thought, that he was always trying to kill Sonic, yet he would feel a great loss if he were destroyed. "No sense thinking like that", he told himself, "soon everything will be complete and I will be unquestioned ruler of this world!" At this moment, Tails, Amy, Rouge, Ghost, Knuckles, Shadow, and Sonic all burst through the wall at the same time.  
  
Everything happened in a sudden hurricane of madness. Eggman ducked as several security guns and robots sprang into life. Amy and Rouge gasped as Tails flicked the Tornado into walker mode, sprinting around in attempt to take out as many security bots as possible. Knuckles launched himself onto Ghost as he sprinted toward the time machine, punching him into oblivion in his mad fury. Sonic and Shadow both flung themselves at the large center of the immense, glowing machine, only to bounce back off with a loud thud. Eggman had finally learned to hedgehog-proof his machines. The intensity of the situation rang in Sonic's ears. The speaker blared, "30 seconds to time cycle engages." Thirty seconds, and he had no idea what to do. He slammed the sole of his foot into two guard robots as he thought. Shadow ducked to avoid a speeding bullet as he found the answer. He yelled to Sonic over the chaos of the moment, "Sonic! I know what we have to do! See how the time-stones and chaos emeralds are in those slots on the control panel! Well, I'm not sure, but if I know what I think I do about the chaos emeralds, it will cause a major energy backup if we switch the chaos emeralds with the time stones!" Sonic nodded, his emerald eyes blazing with determination. "25 seconds till time cycle engages" He clasped hands with Shadow and said, "Let's do it." In that moment, they both sped off in different directions, Sonic first grabbing the green chaos emerald, Shadow grabbing the red. The control board was laid out in a circular shape that surrounded the inner tube of the time machine, with the chaos emeralds lined up on one side, the time stones on the other. Both hedgehogs crossed paths again as they scooped up a time stone each and replaced it with a chaos emerald. "20 seconds till time cycle engages." On their next trip around, each placed the two time stones in the two empty spots where the chaos emeralds had been and grabbed the blue and purple chaos emeralds, all fast as lighting increasing speed as they went around. "18 seconds till detonation" They slammed the emeralds into their spots and picked up two more time stones, still increasing in their tremendous speed. "17 seconds." The indigo and white chaos emeralds were the next to go, followed by the yellow. As two more time stones were slammed into place by the whirlwind of speed that was Sonic and Shadow, all that remained was one last time stone. "15 seconds." Sonic got to it before Shadow, and swooped it up in his hand as he flew by, thundering on toward the last empty spot as hard as he had ever run. He raised his hand, bought it down with the time stone straight for the socket, but was suddenly plowed over by a white storm of fury. As he and the time stone skidded across the floor and slammed into the wall, he was able to make out the sinister figure of Ghost standing over him, blood streaming down his white face. Ghost charged at the time stone in a furious trance, and as Knuckles desperately lunged at him fists first, Ghost merely cast him aside with a wave of his powerful fist. Sonic desperately flung himself at Ghost as he scooped up the time stone, but missed, leaving the white echidna a clear route to the time machine. "1 second" Ghost began to charge madly toward his goal, but was immediately plowed over by a black hedgehog cannonball, once again sending the time stone flying through the air. Eggman grinned with greed as he snatched it from the air, but his expression changed back to fury when it was snatched out of his hands by a blue blur that whizzed by. "6 seconds." Sonic once again made a mad dash for the machine, determination radiating through his eyes and filling his veins. "5 seconds" Sonic was once again bowled over by his sinister white foe, but this time he made sure to hold on to the time stone with all his might. "4 seconds" Sonic looked up, and made eye contact with Ghost, who, fist raised and a crazed look in his eye, prepared to terminate him right on the spot. Sonic prepared the blow, but it didn't come. Instead, Ghost was literally batted across the room by a huge mallet that seemingly came from nowhere, sending him into the wall and imbedding him in it with a huge crash. In his place stood Amy Rose, leaning on her mallet, looking Sonic in the eye. "2 seconds" Sonic leaned over, kissed her on the cheek, and blasted toward the remaining empty slot, channeling every last drop of any available energy into his furiously pumping legs. This was it, this was the deciding moment, this was the final test of his speed, the fate of millions lay in him now. And even now, Sonic loved it. This WAS what he lived for, this was what he was meant for. "1 second" He raised his hand, the time stone in it, reflecting the lights of the room brilliantly inside of it, and slammed his hand downward. Time seemed to slow to a near stop as his hand thundered down into the slot. He was suddenly aware of everything around him, the bullets flying through the air, the faces watching him, and he even became aware of the feelings in the room that seemed suspended in the air. The stone finally clicked into its slot satisfyingly, and for a moment, all was silent as Sonic leapt out of the way and Ghost leapt toward the machine frantically and desperately. It was so silent you could almost hear the suspense filling the room. Every face in the room showed it. Then, suddenly, the machine exploded in a dazzling display of the whitest and purest light Sonic had ever seen. The explosion made no noise, but instead filled the entire room with the blinding light, flooding the walls and faces in the room almost angelically. A fierce blast of wind followed, forcing everyone to cover their faces as it blew fragments of the machine across the room. Somehow, it was almost calming. A single figure could be seen in the center of all this, standing alone. There, bathed in the white light, stood Sonic the hedgehog, looking exactly like what he was: a hero.  
  
The end  
  
Or is it? Stay Tuned for the final chapter: A Hero Could Save us 


	10. A Hero Could Save us

And they say  
  
That a hero could save us  
  
I'm not gonna stand here and wait  
  
I'll hold onto the wings of the eagles  
  
Watch as we all fly away  
  
And they're watching us  
  
They're watching us  
  
As we all fly away  
  
Ghost tried to free his senses from the throbbing pain that pounded in his head and rang in his ears, but to no avail. He lay still for a long while, trying to regain his strength. He tried to recall his recent memories, but couldn't seem to remember a thing, not even who or where he was. Then suddenly, it all came rushing back to him, in one huge crashing wave. The time stones, his plan, Eggman's betrayal, the strange red echidna, and Sonic. His eyes flicked open, anger flooding over them. He almost went back into shock from what lay before his eyes. Ghost was suspended in the middle of what seemed the universe, with stars stretching on in every direction, up, down, right, and left, as far as he could see. The black space was painted with the bright colors of nebulas and gas clouds, and lit up by asteroids and meteorites that whizzed past him. Everything seemed to moving, chaotic and beautiful. Ghost was now at the beginning of time. A crazed smile streaked across his lips. Floating around him in a ring were the 7 chaos emeralds, 7 time stones, and the master emerald. When he had desperately dove toward the exploding time- machine back in the moon-base, the explosion must have caused the time stones to send everything within a small radius of themselves back here. But that didn't explain how the master emerald was here, it hadn't been in the room with them. He puzzled over this for a moment, but then, it suddenly dawned on it. The reason his tribe had taken it upon themselves to guard this emerald, the reason for the strange legends surrounding it, the reason for Chaos' power, the reason why the entire nature of this universe was chaotic. Chaos was the creator of this universe, and it had been around since the beginning of time. He ran his finger across the glossy surface of the emerald with a new kind of awe. Next, it suddenly dawned on him the power that lay in his hands. He, could essentially, harness Chaos, and become practically the God of this universe. Evil joy washed over him, and, curving his lips in a sinister smile, pronounced, "It begins."  
  
Sonic crouched down on the steel floor, rubbing his temples furiously. The explosion, the blinding white light, somehow, it had triggered some lost memory stowed away in the back of his head. It was extremely vague, though. It was of him, scurrying down a narrow shaft, not very consciously, then looking down on another hedgehog much like him through a grate. Then suddenly, a blinding explosion, much like the one he had just experienced, only more powerful. He could only remember the feeling of him..somehow changing, and then running, running far away. The memory slipped away as several pairs of feet belonging to Knuckles, Tails, and Rouge all ran over to congratulate him. Before he was smothered by their hands, he caught a quick glimpse of Shadow not far away, crouching down and having much of the same look on his face as Sonic.  
  
"SONIC! YOU DID IT SONIC! WAY TO GO! YOU'RE MY HERO SONIC!", came all the loud and gracious praises. Sonic would have liked to join them in their celebrations, but he noticed something very disturbing. The slots where the time stones and chaos emeralds had been were now empty, and he could not see them strewn across the floor anywhere or glimmering in the wreckage of the machine. But that wasn't the worst. Ghost the echidna was gone. He nervously batted all the congratulating hands away as he made his way over to the time machine. "No..No it can't be....NO!!!" Everyone in the room had a worried look on their face, with the exception of Shadow, he seemed to understand exactly what Sonic was worried about. Everything was silent for a moment until Tails started, "Sonic, what's the matter..you just saved..." "NO!! I didn't save anyone, I just made it worse!" Everyone had a defeated and confused expression so he continued, "Look! All the emeralds and time stones are gone, along with that white bastard of an echidna!" Knuckles looked a little worried but said, "Look Sonic, Ghost was probably incinerated, and the emeralds are most likely buried somewhere in the rubble!" Sonic started to open his mouth to testify, but jumped at the sound of Eggman's voice. "I'm ashamed to admit, but your little blue buddy is correct in his assumption." All in the room turned around to face Eggman, whom they had preciously forgotten about, seated in his chair facing a large screen which displayed a large projection of the earth. "Watch", he concluded solemnly. They all tensed, waiting for whatever was supposed to happen impatiently. Once again, Sonic could literally feel the suspense in the room. The large image of the Earth remained completely still for a few long moments, but then suddenly, all hell broke loose. To try and sum it up would be impossible. It was as though a huge tidal wave of mystical wind started to rise along the equator, rising up to the heights of the upper atmosphere. It slowly washed across the surface of the earth, spreading in directions, north and south. The surface that it washed over turned a rusty red, jagged peaks sprouting up into pitch black stormclouds. Everyone watched in awe as they witnessed the blue oceans turn a blackish-red and the green land a rust-orange. Sonic almost thought he could see the wasteland of destroyed cities and civilizations on the distant surface. A wave of chaos. But most terrible and frightening of all, across the whole globe there lay an all to familiar shadow, a shadow in the shape of Sonic's familiar foe, Perfect Chaos. All in the room lurched back in fear at the sight of this. Sonic knew exactly what had happened. Ghost the echidna had somehow been sent back to the beginning of time, along with the time stones, and gained control of the awesome power of chaos, making him ruler of this world, or for that matter....universe! He could control or change the universe in any was he wanted, which is exactly what he had done. The wave was changing everything that had been in the future to what it was like now. Sonic realized the danger of this just as the wave enveloped the last of the North and South poles. It didn't seem intent on only enveloping the Earth however, for right after it was finished, it suddenly burst out from the earth, spreading outward in all directions. Everyone watched in horror as it leapt forward at them, getting closer on the giant screen. Tails frantically yelled, "QUICK! EVERYONE IN THE TORNADO!"  
  
No one needed a second warning. They all scrambled into the three rows of seats in the wondrous machine, crunching to fit all of Sonic, Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, and Eggman in. Tails switched his machine to what looked like a hybrid jet and mega drill form, paused for a second them rammed down on the throttle. Everyone was thrown to the back as the Tornado suddenly flew into a full speed, ninety-degree upward flight, crashing through the ceiling with the nose's dangerously spinning drill. Amy and Rouge screamed as they were pressed against the glass of the cockpit, watching helplessly as they flew upwards through countless layers of crumbling stone and steel. They climbed up like this, with Tails pushing the Tornado to it's full extent, for what seemed like much too long, and just when he thought he was going to pass out, Tails saw the open starry sky burst out in front of him, his clue to pull the throttle up violently and level of the plane. Not 500 yards away, directly in front of them and approaching rapidly, was the sinister wave, spelling their inevitable doom. Tails yelped and threw the Tornado into a half backflip, shooting off in the opposite direction of the approaching wave upside down. He turned the Tornado rightside up and blasted to jets to full throttle, desperately trying to outrun the oncoming wave, but seeing no way out, for the wave was expanding in every direction and catching up to them. He was surprised to hear Eggman yell, "WAIT, TAILS! TURN THE PLANE BACK AROUND, NOW!" Tails made a furious face and yelled over the roar, "ARE YOU CRAZY EGGMAN, DO YOU WANT TO DIE!" Eggman ignored this and continued frantically, "LISTEN, THIS WAVE WAS CREATED FROM THE POWER OF CHAOS, AND IF I KNOW AS MUCH AS I THINK I DO ABOUT IT, YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO CAUSE THE WAVES TO BOUNCE RIGHT OFF OF US IF YOU FLY TOWARD IT HEAD ON AT FULL SPEED." Tails paused and tried to think through the panic of the moment; Eggman's explanation did make sense. "Why should I believe you", Tails asked. "Because I'm our only hope, and we're going to be swallowed up by it in about 20 seconds anyway."  
  
Tails had no time to second guess right now. He slammed the brakes, violently sending the Tornado to a screeching halt and swinging it around 180 degrees. He had no time to pause, and he slammed on the throttle, rocketing them forward toward the horrible dark wave. Everyone screamed, partly from being thrown backwards by the sudden acceleration, and partly because of the giant wave that was now approaching twice as fast. It took all of Tails' mental will power to not turn the plane around and away from the seemingly inevitable doom, but somehow he kept on going. The wave got bigger, bigger, and bigger, till finally, the collided head on, the wave swallowing them. It was like passing through the most pitch black night ever heard of. Eggman must have been right, energy waves rippled and crackled off the plane's surface, bouncing off as he had predicted. Everyone was too horrified even to scream. The Tornado finally burst out of the darkness, the large bright moon stretching out under them, and all sighed heavily in relief. They had made it! Well, sort of. The outside of the Tornado was burnt black from the energy waves that had cascaded across it, and both the wings and propellers were all fried off. The dying machine hung in the air for one brief, terrifying second, then quietly began it's downward plunge. Tails frantically tried to open the glass cockpit as he was thrown backwards, but it seemed melded on to the rest of the Tornado. There was no use. As the moon's surface got unbearably bigger by the second, Amy pounded on the glass with her piko-piko hammer and Knuckles punched furiously at it, but the bulletproof glass held strong. Sonic and Shadow were the only two ones who knew that they could make it. They could easily jump right through the glass and escape to safety, but both were frantically searching their minds for a way to save the others in the plane. After a few brief moments, the terrible truth dawned on both of them: there was no way to save them. So as the machine was inches away from slamming into the ground, Sonic and Shadow had no other choice than to jump out, without saving anyone else. They sprang up, shattering the glass and flying away from the doomed plane. They heard the terrible explosion, and it scorched the fur on their backs as they hit the hard moon ground.  
  
"NO!!!" Sonic and Shadow both dashed over to the smoldering fiery wreckage of the Tornado, which was literally blown to pieces. What they saw broke their hearts to pieces, particularly Sonic's. Strewn about 20 yards away from the wreckage were the burnt and lifeless forms of Knuckles, Rouge, Eggman, Tails, and Amy. "Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit!", Sonic yelled frantically as he and Shadow sprinted over to the bodies. Shadow looked over to Sonic, and was greatly shocked and moved. Sonic the hedgehog was actually crying. Bright tears streamed down his face, and he tried to mutter curses to cover up his sobbing. Shadow promised silently to himself that he would not allow himself to cry. Sonic came across the blackened form of Tails first, and he threw himself down on the ground uncontrollably by his side. He frantically checked for a pulse, but found none. "Tails..It's all my fault Tails", he tried to say through sobs. He took the fox's hand in his and remembered how he had found him, not much older than a toddler. Tails had been like a brother to him. Shadow felt like crying for Sonic, but decided to let him be. He gathered up all his strength to control himself as he came across the bodies of Knuckles and Rouge. Now a single tear actually ran down his cheek. They had loved each other, no denying it, and at least they died together. They had both been as brave and diehard as anyone he had ever known. He turned his head back toward Sonic, who had now moved on to Amy's body. "Oh God", Shadow said silently. He had forgotten about Amy. He couldn't imagine how hard it was for Sonic right now. Even though he had always pushed Amy away, it was obvious that Sonic loved her. Shadow could no even imagine the guilt Sonic must be feeling. He was doing the same he had to Tails, holding Amy's dead hand and muttering, "It's all my falt...." "No (cough) It's not."  
  
Both hedgehogs spun around and caught sight of Eggman, who lay helplessly on his back and coughed uncontrollably. Shadow could tell he was just barely hanging on to life. Sonic, a dead furious rage in his eyes, thundered over toward Eggman, yelling, "EGGMAN! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE! I'LL KILL YOU IF YOU'RE NOT DEAD ALREADY!" Shadow had to dive on the blue hedgehog to stop him from reaching the dying mad doctor. Eggman tried to wheeze out more, "No Sonic, you can still save them, (cough) all is not lost." Shadow tried to wrestle Sonic down and prevent him from killing Eggman. "OH YEAH? HOW IS THAT EGGMAN? THEY'RE ALL DEAD AND IT'S YOUR FALT!" To both hedgehogs' surprise, a silver tear rolled down the mad doctor's face. "I know (cough) And that's why I'm asking you to please help me reverse it (cough)" A glimmer of hope lit up in Sonic's eyes and he listened through clenched teeth. "If you were to (cough) go back in time (cough) and defeat Ghost (cough) none of this would have ever happened, and none of your friends would be dead." Sonic's eyes lit up for a moment, but then narrowed back to slits, "The time stones are all gone, there's no way I can go back in time!" To Sonic and Shadow's surprise, the doctor just smiled, "(cough) Sonic, Shadow, just how fast (cough) do you think you can run?" Sonic gave a weak smile and reminded, "The fastest thing alive." Eggman struggled to continue, "Then I suspect (cough) that you will be able to pull it off (cough) but before I tell you how (cough) I must tell you a story." Shadow said a little irritably, "We don't have time right now!" Eggman gave a loud wheeze but continued, "It deals with your (cough) past, Shadow, and you too (cough) Sonic." Both hedgehogs fell silent. Eggman took a deep breath, and then proceeded to tell them everything he had found on the secret files that he had downloaded from the A.R.K..  
  
When Eggman had finished, Sonic and Shadow could only stare silently. "So that was the memory I had back when the machine exploded", Sonic realized. Sonic and Shadow now both knew where they had come from and how they were created. Shadow spoke up, "So....I'm really Sonic's clone, or at least close to it?" " Yes (cough)" The two hedgehogs took a moment to think about it, it all made sense. Eggman continued, "But (cough) I'm more interested in what the file said about Chaos (cough)" Sonic had thought that what the file had said about Chaos was a little strange, but probably nothing more than a coincidence. "Well (cough) I had been doing some previous research over the years (cough) on something called dark matter (cough) the stuff that makes up 99 percent of the universe, but we don't know what it is (cough), ever heard of it?" Sonic and Shadow both nodded. "Well (cough) I had this crazy idea, that dark matter was in fact (cough) chaos energy. I did some tests and they all came out positive (cough) but there was no way to prove it, and the explanation seemed too strange (cough), for if this dark matter was really chaos energy, then the universe must have been created by Chaos (cough). When I saw these facts on the files (cough) proving the godlike essence of Chaos, I was convinced. Do you (cough) realize what this means? Chaos energy surrounds us, it is (cough) everywhere." Once again Sonic and Shadow were absolutely speechless. "So you mean, I don't really even need the chaos emeralds to go Super?", asked Sonic excitedly. Eggman nodded with a smile, "Correct Sonic, you were only fooled in thinking that you needed the (cough) chaos emeralds." Shadow looked slightly amazed but said, "You still haven't told us how we're going to travel back in time!" Eggman looked like he was in pain, "Ah (cough) yes, I must hurry, I'm slipping away (cough). Have you ever heard of the theory of relativity (cough)?" Sonic shook his head stupidly and Shadow looked as though he didn't know either. "Well (cough) no use in trying to explain it, but (cough) this is what you have to do: according to the theory, if you were to travel around the earth (cough) at the speed of light in the opposite direction of its rotation, you would be able to go back in time (cough). Since the moon already orbits the earth, you won't have to run that fast (cough). But you still have to run in the opposite way of the moon's rotation (cough). Don't stop running until you reach the very beginning of time. I'm nearly (cough) dead now Sonic and Shadow, now go (cough) make me proud." With that, his breathing ceased and he lay still.  
  
Sonic and Shadow looked over to each other. Both their faces were wet with tears. After a long silence, Shadow spoke, "Well, I can't believe it, but I'm actually listening to Eggman. You heard him, lets go." Sonic nodded and stood up, facing toward the opposite direction of the moon's rotation. Shadow nodded one more time, and they both took off, kicking up a cloud of moon dust behind them. Both hedgehogs channeled all of their energy into their legs once again, searching their bodies for any drop of available energy. As they thundered over the landscape, Sonic looked up at the huge, looming, earth above, and saw something strange. At first it had been rotating at a fairly steady rate, but now it looked as though the rotation was slowing. As they ran faster and faster, tearing over the moon's barren surface, the earth's rotation got slower and slower. Sonic noticed that Shadow was also looking at the earth. They both tried to push themselves faster, creating a sonic boom as they streaked across, but they were already going as fast as they could possibly go. It wasn't going to work, they needed to go faster. Then Sonic remembered what Eggman had said, about chaos energy surrounding them at all times. He looked over to Shadow and knew that he once again was sharing his thoughts. Sonic closed his eyes, trying to concentrate and feel the energy around him, just like he felt it with the chaos emeralds. He could feel it, it was everywhere, you just had to know it was there and know how to use it. He drew it in to him, sucking it out from the air around him and letting it pour into him. He felt the power flow through him, surge through his veins. He opened his eyes and saw his fur explode from blue to bright yellow in a bright flash. Shadow, running next to him, had also successfully transformed, his platinum fur streaked with red. They both rocketed over the surface, not even needing to use their legs anymore, gaining speed every second. They completed one full trip around the moon in less than 5 seconds. Sonic and Shadow looked up at the earth, which stalled in rotation for a brief moment, then began to turn backwards. They looked on triumphantly as it spun backwards faster and faster, the surface changing with the reversed time. But it wasn't just the earth that was turning backwards, Sonic looked into the starry sky and saw as stars were born and unborn, as comets and asteroids whizzed past them. They were flying back through time at a tremendous rate now, going faster than they had ever thought possible as they became living vacuums, sucking in tremendous amounts of the chaos energy. They watched as the earth slowly unformed, crumbling and then turning in to a mere cloud of gas, and looked down to realize that the moon was now gone too. Sonic and Shadow were now just flying back through space time, refusing to stop until they could not go back any farther. Stars and planets flew past them as they watched in awe, and then, suddenly, it stopped. They had reached the beginning of time.  
  
Sonic and Shadow floated in space, looking in awe at the vast cosmos that surrounded them. It was spoiled however, by the terrifying sight that lay in front of them. There, floating with the 7 chaos emeralds, 7 time stones, and master emerald surrounding him, was Ghost the echidna, a fearsome look in his eye. "WHAT!? IMPOSSIBLE!! HOW DID YOU TWO GET HERE! I ALONE HOLD THE POWER OF THE TIME STONES!" Sonic and Shadow smirked. "You better believe it buddy", Sonic jeered, "We're here to kick your ass and save the universe!" Ghost chuckled, "Well, your too late now! Once I merge with Chaos, I will obtain ultimate power that cannot be defeated! CHAOS, RISE!!!" The two hedgehogs watched in horror as the trickle of blue liquid seeped out of the master emerald, proceeding to consume all of the Chaos emeralds. The monster slowly rose up to a tremendous height, taking the familiar form of perfect Chaos. The beast gave a booming and deafening roar as it was awakened from its slumber. Ghost, a sinister smile across his face, rose upwards until he was level with the beast's head, then disappeared into its liquid form. Chaos gave out another loud roar as his liquid blue form shifted and transformed. It swirled around violently and bubbled and churned until it took the sinister shape of Ghost, smiling wildly. Sonic looked up at the monstrous liquid blue Ghost towering over him, and somehow, he was not afraid. "NOW DO YOU SEE THE FULL EXTENT OF MY POWER!! I AM INVINCIBLE!!" He threw his giant hands back and puffed his chest out powerfully, his glowing green eyes narrowed to slits. "DO YOU DARE CHALLENGE ME!!" Shadow looked over to Sonic, into his eyes, which were a deep blood red in his Super form instead of their normal emerald green., and he could tell that Sonic did not plan on giving up anytime soon. "Yeah, we do challenge you", came Sonic's reply, "I think the question is, do you dare challenge us?" Ghost gave a loud laugh, but Shadow thought that he could hear a slight nervousness in his tone. Without saying anything else, the Chaos-Ghost hybrid monster threw his hands up, sending thousands of tiny blue needles flying out of his chest, officially beginning the epic struggle.  
  
Sonic and Shadow blasted off toward the giant monster, weaving their way in and out of the deadly needles that flew at them. Ghost raised a giant blue fist and took aim at the two hedgehogs, bringing it crashing downwards with thundering power, but Super Sonic and Super Shadow were two fast. They moved so fast, that to the naked eye, it appeared as though they simply disappeared one moment and reappeared the next. They blasted off side by side toward the Chaos transformed Ghost's chest in a bright streaks of yellow and platinum, moving in an erratic pattern to confuse the monster. Sonic hoped that he could defeat the monster the same way as he had before, by flying into it full speed and swirling up it's exposed brain. Sonic and Shadow flew into the liquid chest with a splash, bouncing off the monsters insides upwards through the liquid and towards its brain. They rocketed toward it, intent on knocking it straight out of the monster's head, but to their surprise, as they got nearer to it, the liquid around them suddenly froze, causing them to bounce right off it and out of the monster with a shock. Sonic tried to shoot right back in through the creature's head and to its weak point, but the same thing happened. As they flew backwards to reevaluate their strategy, Shadow yelled, "Ghost is in its head, he's controlling the thing, and he can control the liquid body any way he wants." Sonic nodded, "Chaos is not evil, our real enemy is Ghost, we need to find a way to drive him out. They quickly dodged another blue fist as Sonic yelled, "Listen, I have a crazy idea, just go straight for the brain, I'll take care of the rest." Shadow nodded, he trusted Sonic fully. They flew toward the monster again, dodging its newest attacks: giant flying energy meteors. The creature watched amusedly as the two hedgehogs blasted into its chest again. Shadow shot straight for the brain just as Sonic had told him too, but Sonic stayed back. It was a crazy idea, but Sonic hoped it would work. He had remembered Tails saying that Chaos only used negative chaos energy when it was angry, so he hoped that if he channeled all of the positive energy out of him and into the monster, it might weaken it enough to allow Ghost a clear shot at its brain, hopefully taking out Ghost. He focused his mind on pushing all of the energy out of him and into the monster. He glowed a bright white as the energy streamed out of him and filled the monster, turning the cold blue liquid a warm yellow. He became a living faucet, streaming out positive chaos energy in its purest form. The monster put its hands to its chest and Ghost's voice could be heard, "NO, NO!! WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" Shadow looked back just in time to see what Sonic was doing, and he almost turned back around. "NO SONIC, NO!!", he yelled desperately. Sonic was emptying all the chaos energy out of him, and without it he would not be able to retain his super form, causing him to perish in the cold vacuum of space . But then he realized something: he had to let Sonic do this, it was his destiny. Just like the seer of Knuckles ancient tribe had prophesized; he would save the world again, and would have to make a great sacrifice. With great sadness, Shadow bolted toward the creature's brain, where Ghost sat and was controlling the creature. Sonic was right, the creature was confused enough that he was able to fly straight at the brain, and to his surprise, he passed right through the brain as though it were made of liquid too. He ran into something hard at last, and that something hard was Ghost the echidna. The force of Shadow coming into contact with him shattered every bone in Ghost's body, killing him instantly. Chaos let out a great cry that sounded halfway between a scream and a sigh as it began to return to its original form. Shadow passed out of the creatures liquid body and streaked down to where Sonic floated inside the creature's body, pouring out all the positive energy in him as he shone brilliantly. "SONIC HURRY, YOU CAN STILL SAVE YOURSELF!!" Shadow saw Sonic shake his head, and he knew what he meant. Chaos was still angry, and Sonic had to neutralize the monster with all his positive energy, or it could have serious consequences in the future. Shadow nodded solemnly as he watched Sonic pour out his energy, spreading it through the creature's body. With a single tear, Shadow darted to the spot where the 7 time stones floated, and without looking back, warped himself back to the future with only these words, "Sayonara, Sonic. I'll always remember you."  
  
Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Amy, and Shadow were all gathered on a quiet green hill that provided a clear view of the sky. They had all decided to gather here to honor and mourn their hero Sonic in light of the recent events. By going back in time and defeating Ghost, he had brought them all back to life and changed the world back to the way it was supposed to be. They all sat there in silence for a long while, looking up at the starry sky, hoping vainly that somehow Sonic would just come flying back down alive. After Shadow had returned to the future, everyone had cheered him excitedly but soon realized that something was wrong. Amy had been the first to ask, "Where's Sonic?" Shadow remembered how hard it had been to break it to them. They had all been moved to tears, especially poor Amy. He looked over to her now, her face was bathed in moonlight, making the tears that ran down her face shine brilliantly. Rouge put an arm around her comfortingly, but it didn't help much. "I could have never been as brave as him", Tails said with a little sob. Everyone silently nodded in agreement that the same went for them. They sat there till the middle of the night, offering little words now and then, but mostly staying silent and trying to imagine what Sonic's last fight had been like. They got Shadow to repeat the story, trying to picture the battle in the sky as he told it. Eventually, everyone filed out silently, returning back to their homes solemnly. Amy was the last one left on the hill. She sat there until the early hours of the morning, sobbing silently and aching inside. "Sonic was so brave", she thought sadly, "I don't know if I'll ever be able to be as brave as him, but I'll sure try." A bright yellow shooting star streaked across the night sky, and Amy made a wish silently. Maybe her wish came true, maybe it didn't, but what Amy didn't know was that the shooting star she had wished on was in fact a certain hedgehog, Sonic, flying back down in his super form to greet her.  
  
The End  
  
Ok now you've really reached the end of this story!! I had a ton of fun writing this and I hope you all enjoyed it! I would like to deeply thank everyone who has reviewed my story, you don't know how much I appreciate it and how happy your words make me every time I read them!! I know this was a confusing chapter so if you have any questions please e-mail me I would be pleased to answer them! Once again thank you! I'll have to see how much people liked this story before deciding to write another, but please let me know if you think I should!! Sayonara!!  
  
P.S. The song at the beginning was Hero by Nickleback. Try listening to it while reading this chapter, it's really cool. 


	11. OFFER!

OFFER!!!!  
  
Ok here's the deal: I got a lot of positive feedback on this story, and I  
really would like to write another one. However, spare time has been a major problem for me lately; I've got two basketball teams to attend to, homework, and am in the long and stroke inducing process of applying for  
high school. So I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in co- authoring a story with me! We would communicate ideas through e-mail, and hopefully split the writing evenly (although there will be times where I  
just won't be able to write anything) and I would pay attention to and share all of your ideas. To give you a general idea of what I was thinking of writing about, I'm leaning toward something dealing with Sonic on a more personal level, with not as much action as my first story, maybe dealing with the death of Shadow, or possibly a Sonic/Amy story, which also leads me to say that this will definitely not be a sequel to my other story, as I think it would be confusing having a sequel for a fan fiction. But I was also thinking I might like to write a story with a more dark, apocalyptic theme, in which Sonic would be fighting against a much more powerful foe  
that has taken control of the world, maybe one created by Eggman, and Sonic and company would possibly even have to team up with Eggman to fight  
it. But other suggestions are open too! Please e-mail me at  
icecreamman672@yahoo.com if interested! 


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